Oxidation states of GaAs surface and their effects on neutral beam etching during nanopillar fabrication

We have investigated a new process for fabricating GaAs sub-20 nm nanopillars that uses a top-down combination of a bio-template and damage-free neutral beam etching. A two-dimensional array of nanoparticles composed of a protein shell embedded with a metal oxide core was formed on the top of a GaAs surface treated by neutral beam oxidation. Because of device requirements, three low-temperature oxygen techniques were investigated for removing the protein shell prior to the etching process: oxygen radical, oxygen neutral beam, and low-temperature oxygen annealing in vacuum (LT-OAV). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to monitor the effects of the different treatments on the GaAs surface. While the three processes could efficiently remove a protein shell, subsequent oxidation of the GaAs surface showed some differences in the oxide layer composition. Therefore, LT-OAV was selected considering its lower gallium oxide formation. A hydrogen radical process was then performed at temperatures lower than 400 °C to remove the oxide layer prior to etching. This process completely removed arsenide oxide and only residual gallium oxide was found on the surface afterwards. Etching was performed using a pure chlorine neutral beam of GaAs samples with metal oxide core etching masks. We found that control of the Ga-oxide amount on the surface is the key parameter for controlling the diameter and the density of nanopillars. Finally, high-aspect ratio nanopillars using stacked layers of GaAs and AlGaAs were obtained and showed no damage layer.