Laser-assisted dry etching of III-nitride wide band gap semiconductor materials

Laser assisted dry etching is a materials processing technique capable of producing highly anisotropic etch features with precise etch depth control and little contamination. The technique is simple: laser radiation is combined with a gaseous chemical etchant to remove material in pattern selected regions. The advantages of laser etching include the removal of etch products with photonic energy instead of ion bombardment, potential of projected patterning to combine growth and etching in situ without exposure to air, production of distinct sidewall etch features for device structures, and precise control of etching with a highly directional pulsed laser energy source. The use of pulsed laser radiation allows for pulsed etch depth control, ultimately resulting in atomic layer control.; Laser assisted dry HCl etching of GaN, AlGaN and InGaN optical device materials was first demonstrated in our laboratory at North Carolina State University in a modified UHV vacuum chamber and ArF (193nm) excimer laser. Effective masking materials of Al and SiO{dollar}sb2{dollar} were determined to be resistant to laser heating and HCl environment for laser etching. The process variables of laser intensity and HCl pressure were found to be dominant with the necessary condition that no etching occurs without both the excimer laser and HCl present. Successful laser etching of GaN, AlGaN, and InGaN was demonstrated indicating that deep etch features with distinct sidewall features are possible with this technique. Laser etching of a III-Nitride quantum well double heterostructure resulted in no degradation of the photoluminescence response. Also, reduction of etch damage with laser etching may be possible in comparison to ion etching. Finally, a proposed model for the etching mechanism includes the photothermal release of nitrogen from the GaN surface resulting in a Ga-rich surface which is removed by the HCl etchant.