Vapor etching of GaAs and AlGaAs by CH3I

Abstract

With the objective of developing an improved process for in situ etching of GaAs-based materials in organometallic vapor phase epitaxy reactors, GaAs wafers and AlxGa1−xAs epilayers have been etched with CH3I vapor in a horizontal reactor operated at atmospheric pressure with H2 or He carrier gas. For a H2 flow rate of 2.1 s lpm, etching temperatures from 400 to 625 °C, and CH3I mol fractions (yCH3I)from 0.0012 to 0.015, the measured GaAs etch rate r (in Å min−1) is given by r = k0 y0.83CH3I exp[ − 45(kcal mol−1)/RT] with k0=3.2×1016 Å min−1. The value of k0 depends on the type of carrier gas, flow rate, total pressure, and reactor geometry. The etch rate appears to be controlled mainly by the decomposition of CH3I to CH3 and I, for which the activation energy has been reported to be 43.5 kcal mol−1. The etch rate of AlxGa1−xAs epilayers with x up to 0.7, which was measured at 480 °C with yCH3I= 0.015, does not depend on Al content. The surface morphology of etched GaAs wafers improves with decreasing temperature. Specular surfaces are maintained at temperatures below 500 °C for etch depths up to 5000 Å.