Improvement the InAs, InSb, GaAs and GaSb surface state by nanoscale wet etching

Iryna Levchenko,Andrii Korchovyi,Iryna Stratiychuk,Vasyl Tomashyk,Galyna Malanych

doi:10.1007/s13204-021-01784-w

Iryna Levchenko, Andrii Korchovyi + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-021-01784-w

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Abstract

Various experimental approaches of the wet nanoscale treatment have been proposed to account for features of the InAs, InSb and GaAs, GaSb semiconductor dissolution process in the (NH4)2Cr2O7–HBr–EG etching solution. Etching kinetics data showed that a crystal dissolution has diffusion-determined nature. The lowering of the solvent concentration from 80 to 0 vol.% in the solution was accompanied by a significant increase in the semiconductor etching speed. Depending on the solution composition, we have studied two types of crystal surface morphology, polished and passivated by the film, which was formed after chemical-dynamic (CDP) and/or chemical-mechanic polishing (CMP) in the solution, saturated by solvent and by oxidant, accordingly. It was found that in the polished etchants both CDP and CMP procedures lead to the formation of the mirror-like and super-smooth surface with nanoscale roughness less than 1 nm. The obtained results of surface state indicate that the (NH4)2Cr2O7–HBr–EG etchants could be used successfully for controllable CDP and CMP treatment of III–V semiconductors and formation of super-smooth surface.

Highlights

III–V semiconductors are widely used in the manufacturing of gas detection systems, photodetectors, optogenetics, biomedical applications, high electron mobility and heterojunction bipolar transistors, resonant tunneling diodes, spintronic devices solar cells, optical windows (Kimukin et al 2003; Bennett et al 2005).The investigation of the etching nature and features of the treated crystal plays a crucial role for the development of1 V
Etching process of semiconductors is followed by redox reactions due to the etchant molecules interaction with crystals
The etching rate of III–V semiconductors dissolution in the binary and (NH4)2Cr2O7–HBr–EG compositions demonstrates the linear dependency on the solvent concentration in all concentration range

Summary

Introduction

III–V semiconductors are widely used in the manufacturing of gas detection systems, photodetectors, optogenetics, biomedical applications, high electron mobility and heterojunction bipolar transistors, resonant tunneling diodes, spintronic devices solar cells, optical windows (Kimukin et al 2003; Bennett et al 2005).The investigation of the etching nature and features of the treated crystal plays a crucial role for the development of1 V. Among a host of possible semiconductor polishing techniques, for instance dry, plasma and wet etchings, the last one is the most popular procedure to obtain the polished substrate surface. Crystal dissolution in liquid etchants helps to avoid the crystallographic damages during cleaning process, in comparison with dry methods. Having an isotropic nature the wet processing promotes similar dissolution rate in all directions (Xie 2005). Understanding the limitation of the procedures type on the dissolution process and surface characteristic is not clear due to technical constraints, such as different type of etching equipment and process condition, method of the activation energy measurement, possibility to estimate the amount of all reagents before and after dissolution, availability of the effective post-treatment procedure, etc

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