Free-standing Al[subscript x]Ga[subscript 1−x]As heterostructures by gas-phase etching of germanium
We outline a facile fabrication technique for the realization of free-standing Al[subscript x]Ga[subscript 1−x]As heterostructures of arbitrary aluminum content. Utilizing xenon difluoride (XeF[subscript 2]) we rapidly and selectively remove a sacrificial germanium (Ge) underlayer in a room temperat...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79626 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1891-1959 |
| Summary: | We outline a facile fabrication technique for the realization of free-standing Al[subscript x]Ga[subscript 1−x]As heterostructures of arbitrary aluminum content. Utilizing xenon difluoride (XeF[subscript 2]) we rapidly and selectively remove a sacrificial germanium (Ge) underlayer in a room temperature gas-phase etching procedure. We demonstrate two possibilities for exploiting this unique process: (1) bulk micromachining of a suspended high-frequency low-dissipation micro-optomechanical resonator consisting of an epitaxial GaAs/AlAs multilayer grown on a Ge substrate and (2) epitaxial lift-off of a GaAs film via removal of an embedded Ge sacrificial layer, resulting in lateral etch rates up to 3 mm/h and a conservative selectivity of ∼ 10[superscript 6]. |
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