Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik

HL 61: Poster II: Materials, Interfaces and Heterostructures

HL 61.42: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 18:00–20:00, Poster D1

Gas-assisted focused electron beam etching for direct nanopatterning of GaAs — •Arkadius Ganczarczyk, Martin Geller, and Axel Lorke — Experimental Physics and CeNIDE, Universität Duisburg-Essen

Sputtering and gas assisted etching of semiconductors with a focused ion beam (FIB) is a very useful tool in the semiconductor preparation on the nanoscale, as it allows direct fabrication without the intermediary of resist [1]. However etching/sputtering of materials with the ion beam has it drawbacks, especially because Ga-ions cause defects in the surrounding material. Therefore, gas assisted etching with a focused electron beam is a powerful and less destructive tool as demonstrated e.g. for Si substrates [1]. We demonstrate here the possibility of gas assisted focused electron beam etching of GaAs. We use a scanning electron microscope (SEM) in a dual beam FIB together with an iodine precursor gas that can be injected by a needle directly onto the sample surface. We demonstrate that the etching rate strongly depends on beam current and acceleration voltage as well as step size and dwell time. Furthermore, we consider the detrimental effects of the surface oxide and discuss possible strategies for oxide removal and surface passivation before the etching step.

[1] I. Utke et al., J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 26, 4, (2008)