Dry Etching of Al-Rich AlGaAs for Photonic Crystal Fabrication

Abstract

We investigate inductively coupled plasma deep dry etching of Al0.8Ga0.2As for photonic crystal (PC) fabrication using Cl2, BCl3, and CH4 chemistry. The characteristic AlO x deposition is observed during the etching, resulting in the reduction of etching rate. BCl3 is considered to scavenge the deposited AlO x by its reductive reaction. CH4 passivates the etching sidewall, as well as enhances the deposition of AlO x . Concerning the impact of pattern size, a pronounced inverse reactive ion etching (RIE) lag is observed, which is beneficial for small-size PC fabrication typically with a hole diameter of 100–500 nm. From the findings, we successfully fabricated a PC structure with air holes having an aspect ratio of 8 and a diameter of 110 nm.

Role of aluminum oxide cladding layers in heat transfer in a semiconductor slab with photonic crystal

“…This discrepancy between calculation and experiment arises from the fluctuation of size and position, and the roughness in the sidewall of the air holes, neglected in calculations, which treats only perfect crystals. 26,27) In addition, a current much larger than I th is necessary in stable laser operation. Therefore, the temperature rise in practical operation can be larger than that estimated in this paper.…”

Effect of Plasma Processes on the Characteristics of GaAs Related Optical Device Structure

“…Similarly, we investigated the impact of etching with the gas mixture of C 3 F 8 and O 2 . That is conventionally employed for the etching of SiO 2 mask [3]. We performed capacitively coupled plasma etching with C 3 F 8 / O 2 (15/5 sccm) plasma at a pressure of 2.0 Pa for various RF powers.…”

“…While, compound semiconductors represented by GaAs are employed for the fabrication of optical devices, which is still difficult for Si technology. The state of the art nanofabrication for the compound semiconductors shows the prospect of upcoming next generation devices, such as photonic crystal and nanowires devices [2,3,4,5]. For the realization of those devices, the etching technique is required to have its accuracy of several nm, as well as adequate selectivity of the target materials with strong anisotropic nature [3,4,5].…”

“…The state of the art nanofabrication for the compound semiconductors shows the prospect of upcoming next generation devices, such as photonic crystal and nanowires devices [2,3,4,5]. For the realization of those devices, the etching technique is required to have its accuracy of several nm, as well as adequate selectivity of the target materials with strong anisotropic nature [3,4,5]. Further, the process damage induced by the etching or ashing becomes more effective on the device characteristics [1,6,7].…”

“…Then, that comes to be essential for the above mentioned nano-scale devices. Then, detailed investigation of process damage on the optical and electrical characteristics of the device structure is required for the realization of ideal device performance [2,3].…”