Inverse metal-assisted chemical etching of indium phosphide with sub-20 nm scalability

Indium Phosphide (InP);metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch);nanowires;nanostructures

Kim, Seung Hyun ; Li ; Xiuling

关键词: Indium Phosphide (InP);    metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch);    nanowires;    nanostructures;   

Others  :  https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/49653/Seung%20Hyun_Kim.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

美国|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

Metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch), a wet etching method developed in 2000, has been the focus of extensive research in the area of semiconductor nanotechnology for the last decade, mainly in Si. In principle, MacEtch can be applicable to the other semiconductors if there exists a significant etch rate difference between the areas with and without the metal coverage. Due to this, MacEtch has recently attracted much attention in extending this technique to III-V semiconductors such as GaAs, GaN, and InP. This thesis demonstrates uniform array-based InP nanostructures with lateral dimensions as small as sub-20 nm using inverse metal-assisted chemical etching (I-MacEtch), a purely solution-based yet anisotropic etching method. The type and geometry of the metal catalyst as well as etchant ratio and concentration are explored to achieve various InP nanostructure features. Unique to I-MacEtch, the sidewall etching profile is remarkably smooth, independent of metal pattern edge roughness. The capability of this simple method to create various InP nanostructures can potentially enable an aggressive scaling of InP based transistors and optoelectronic devices with better performance and at lower cost than conventional etching methods.