• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.02a
• /
• pp.48-48
• /
• 2011

We have developed a chemically-driven top-down approach using vapor phase HCl to form various GaN nanostructures and successfully demonstrated dislocation-free and strain-relaxed GaN nanostructures without etching damage formed by a selective dissociation method. Our approach overcomes many limitations encountered in previous approaches. There is no need to make a pattern, complicated process, and expensive equipment, but it produces a high-quality nanostructure over a large area at low cost. As far as we know, this is the first time that various types of high-quality GaN nanostructures, such as dot, cone, and rod, could be formed by a chemical method without the use of a mask or pattern, especially on the Ga-polar GaN. It is well known that the Ga-polar GaN is difficult to etch by the common chemical wet etching method because of the chemical stability of GaN. Our chemically driven GaN nanostructures show excellent structure and optical properties. The formed nanostructure had various facets depending on the etching conditions and showed a high crystal quality due to the removal of defects, such as dislocations. These structure properties derived excellent optical performance of the GaN nanostructure. The GaN nanostructure had increased internal and external quantum efficiency due to increased light extraction, reduced strain, and improved crystal quality. The chemically driven GaN nanostructure shows promise in applications such as efficient light-emitting diodes, field emitters, and sensors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.08a
• /
• pp.220-220
• /
• 2013

Surface-normal transmission electro-absorption modulator (EAM) are attractive for high-definition (HD) three-dimensional (3D) imaging application due to its features such as small system volume and simple epitaxial structure [1,2]. However, EAM in order to be used for HD 3D imaging system requires uniform modulation performance over large area. To achieve highly uniform modulation performance of EAM at the operating wavelength of 850 nm, it is extremely important to remove the GaAs substrate over large area since GaAs material has high absorption coefficient below 870 nm which corresponds to band-edge energy of GaAs (1.424 eV). In this study, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a transmission EAM in which highly selective backside etching methods which include lapping, dry etching and wet etching is carried out to remove the GaAs substrate for achieving highly uniform modulation performance. First, lapping process on GaAs substrate was carried out for different lapping speeds (5 rpm, 7 rpm, 10 rpm) and the thickness was measured over different areas of surface. For a lapping speed of 5 rpm, a highly uniform surface over a large area ($2{\times}1\;mm^2$) was obtained. Second, optimization of inductive coupled plasma-reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) was carried out to achieve anisotropy and high etch rate. The dry etching carried out using a gas mixture of SiCl4 and Ar, each having a flow rate of 10 sccm and 40 sccm, respectively with an RF power of 50 W, ICP power of 400 W and chamber pressure of 2 mTorr was the optimum etching condition. Last, the rest of GaAs substrate was successfully removed by highly selective backside wet etching with pH adjusted solution of citric acid and hydrogen peroxide. Citric acid/hydrogen peroxide etching solution having a volume ratio of 5:1 was the best etching condition which provides not only high selectivity of 235:1 between GaAs and AlAs but also good etching profile [3]. The fabricated transmission EAM array have an amplitude modulation of more than 50% at the bias voltage of -9 V and maintains high uniformity of >90% over large area ($2{\times}1\;mm^2$). These results show that the fabricated transmission EAM with substrate removed is an excellent candidate to be used as an optical shutter for HD 3D imaging application.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.63-74
• /
• 1994

The ultrathin oxide films less than 100$\AA$ were grown by thermal oxidation in $N_2O$ ambient to improve the controllability of thickness, thickness uniformity, process reproducibility and their electrical properties. Oxidation rate was reduced significantly at very thin region due to the formation of oxynitride layer in $N_2O$ ambient and moreover nitridation of the oxide layer was simultaneously accompanied during growth. The nitrogen incorporation in the grown oxide layer was characterized with the wet chemical etch-rate and ESCA analysis of the grown oxide layer. All the oxides thin films grown in $N_2O$, pure and dilute $O_2$ ambients show Fowler-Nordheim electrical conduction. The electrical characteristics of thin oxide films grown in $N_2O$ such as leakage current, electrical breakdown, interface trap density generation due to the injected electron and reliability were better than those in pure or dilute ambient. These improved properties can be explained by the fact that the weak Si-0 bond is reduced by stress relaxation during oxidation and replacement by strong Si-N bond, and thus the trap sites are reduced.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.90-93
• /
• 2004

Silicon dioxide thin films were deposited on p-type Si (100) substrates by atomic layer deposition (ALD) method using alternating exposures of $SiH_2$$Cl_2$ and $O_3$ at $300^{\circ}C$. $O_3$ was generated by corona discharge inside the delivery line of $O_2$. The oxide film was deposited mainly from $O_3$ not from $O_2$, because the deposited film was not observed without corona discharge under the same process conditions. The growth rate of the deposited films increased linearly with increasing the exposures of $SiH_2$$Cl_2$ and $O_3$ simultaneously, and was saturated at approximately 0.35 nm/cycle with the reactant exposures over $3.6 ${\times}$ 10^{9}$ /L. At a fixed $SiH_2$$Cl_2$ exposure of $1.2 ${\times}$ 10^{9}$L, growth rate increased with $O_3$ exposure and was saturated at approximately 0.28 nm/cycle with $O_3$ exposures over$ 2.4 ${\times}$ 10^{9}$ L. The composition of the deposited film also varied with the exposure of $O_3$. The [O]/[Si] ratio gradually increased up to 2 with increasing the exposure of $O_3$. Finally, the characteristics of ALD films were compared with those of the silicon oxide films deposited by conventional chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods. The silicon oxide film prepared by ALD at $300^{\circ}C$ showed better stoichiometry and wet etch rate than those of the silicon oxide films deposited by low-pressure CVD (LPCVD) and atmospheric-pressure CVD (APCVD) at the deposition temperatures ranging from 400 to $800^{\circ}C$.