Wet Chemical Etching of Antimonide-Based Infrared Materials**Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China under Grant Nos 2014CB643903, 2013CB932904, 2012CB932701 and 2011CB922201, the National Special Funds for the Development of Major Research Equipment and Instruments under Grant No 2012YQ140005, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 61274013, U1037602 and 61290303, and the Strategic Priority Research Program

Abstract

The roughness and the crystallographic orientation selectivity of etched antimonide-based infrared materials are examined and are used to optimize the chemical mesa etching process of the InAs/GaSb superlattice photodiode with the goal of reducing the dark current. The etchant used is based on phosphoric acid (H3PO4), citric acid (C6H8O7) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The roughness of the mesa sidewalls and etching rates are compared and used to find an optimized etchant, with which we obtain optimized mid-wavelength infrared photodiodes possessing an R0A value of 466 ω·cm2 and a detectivity of 1.43 × 1011 cm·Hz1/2 W−1. Crystallographic orientation selectivity is seen in InAs etching, and also is seen in the InAs/GaSb superlattice wet chemical etching process.