Selective growth of InP by MOCVD around dry-etched mesas having various patterns for photonic integrated circuits

Abstract

We have investigated the selective growth ofpnp- InP by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) around mesas. The mesas were formed by reactiveion-etching using SiO2 masks having various patterns. The patterns include stripes along different crystallographic orientations, Y-bifurcations, and X-crossings. The behavior of the growth, and that of the mass transport before the growth, were found to depend remarkably on the crystallographic direction of the mesa stripe. The most notable mass transport, which transforms a nearly vertical mesa wall to a sloped one, was observed for a stripe misoriented by about 30° from the [011] direction. The growth was observed to proceed preferentially on the sloped planes, planarizing the crystal surface, for a mesa stripe directed between the [011] and [010] directions. However, for the stripe direction near [01-1], the growth was observed to creep up a nearly vertical plane on the mesa wall, and sloped planes are reluctant to form. Selective growth with sufficient planarity has been obtained for various waveguides including the Y-bifurcations and the X-crossings, which are used as the waveguide components in photonic integrated circuits, when the stripes are almost along the [011] direction.