Investigation of morphology and fractal behaviour on compound semiconductor surface after electrochemical layer removal

The electrochemical method is a very versatile tool for characterization an d processing of compound semiconductors. In this paper we investigate the s urface morphology and pattern formation of GaAs and InP surfaces after elec trochemical layer removal. Different aqueous HCl based electrolites were us ed for the layer removal. The investigation of the surface pattern formatio n was carried out using the box counting method. The pictures of surface pa tterns were digitised and analysed using high resolution bitmap. The fracta l dimension depends on the semiconductor materials, electrolyte and conditi on of etching, too. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.