LATTICE DAMAGE IN III V COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTORS CAUSED BY DRY-ETCHING/

The crystal damage in optoelectronic devices caused by dry etching met hods [ion beam etching, reactive ion etching, etching with plasmas exc ited by electron cyclotron resonance (ECR)] was evaluated. The analyti cs applied are photoluminescence and Fabry-Perot damping measurement w hich were applied to waveguides. A significant improvement is observed using ECR etching as low damage combined with high etching rates is c oncerned. To evaluate a method as soft or hard etching, Fabry-Perot da mping measurement has emerged to be the most discriminate and decisive tool. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.