Free-standing AlxGa1-xAs heterostructures by gas-phase etching of germanium

Author(s)
Garrett Cole, Yu Bai, Markus Aspelmeyer, Eugene A. Fitzgerald
Abstract

We outline a facile fabrication technique for the realization of free-standing AlxGa1-xAs heterostructures of arbitrary aluminum content. Utilizing xenon difluoride (XeF2) 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 similar to 10(6).

Organisation(s)
Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
External organisation(s)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Journal
Applied Physics Letters
Volume
96
No. of pages
4
ISSN
0003-6951
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3455104
Publication date
2010
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103026 Quantum optics
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/cc45e557-0a52-48ee-923a-9b9039b905db