In situ selective area etching and MOVPE regrowth of GaInAs-InP onInP substrates

摘要

The authors present a method for selective in situ etching andregrowth in open stripes in SiO₂ covered InP-substratesinside a MOVPE (metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy) reactor. The etchingmedium was PCl₃, which was dissociated inside the MOVPEreactor at temperatures between 350 and 580° C. The technique usedprovides a smooth and homogeneous surface morphology and exactlycontrollable etching rates down to a few nanometer. This enables theintegration, of an etching and regrowth step in one process withouttransferring the wafer from one machine to another, thus avoidingcontamination of a well-prepared surface just before the epitaxial step.At certain etching rates V-grooves can be obtained and regrown with anInP/GaInAs heterostructure; this is a very promising possibility for insitu growing of quantum wires. The authors investigated the morphologyof the etched substrates with respect to etching temperature and thecrystallographic orientation of the stripes by optical microscopy andscanning electron microscopy. First experiments on in situ etched andregrown V-grooves have been done