Indium Phosphide (InP) is one of the most widely commercialized III–V semiconductor materials for making efficient lasers operating in the O-band and C-band. It is also gaining significant attention as a material platform for passive integrated optical devices operating in the telecommunication wavelength range for optical communication networks and sensing. Fabrication of such devices requires a process of lithography for pattern writing followed by plasma etching for transferring the pattern into the semiconductor material. InP is one of the most difficult materials to etch due to the fact that the etching by-products (${\mathrm{InCl}}_x$) are not volatile at temperatures less than 150 ${}^{°}$C. There have been some studies showing InP etching at lower temperatures and room temperatures. However, after carefully studying these processes using multiple plasma etching tools, we found that the claimed processes are not repeatable because of the low volatility of the by-products at room temperature. In this work, we demonstrate a systematic study of etching InP using methane-hydrogen-based chemistry at low temperatures (60 ${}^{°}$C) and chlorine-based chemistry at high temperatures (190 ${}^{°}$C).

中文翻译：

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InP/InGaAsP 加热等离子体蚀刻和集成光学器件粗糙度改进的系统研究

磷化铟 (InP) 是最广泛商业化的 III-V 半导体材料之一，用于制造在 O 波段和 C 波段运行的高效激光器。作为在光通信网络和传感的电信波长范围内运行的无源集成光学器件的材料平台，它也受到了极大的关注。此类器件的制造需要用于图案写入的光刻工艺，然后是用于将图案转移到半导体材料中的等离子蚀刻。InP 是最难蚀刻的材料之一，因为蚀刻副产物 (${\mathrm{氯化铟}}_X$) 在低于 150 的温度下不挥发 ${}^{°}$C. 有一些研究表明 InP 在较低温度和室温下蚀刻。然而，在使用多种等离子蚀刻工具仔细研究这些工艺后，我们发现，由于副产品在室温下的低挥发性，所要求的工艺不可重复。在这项工作中，我们展示了在低温下使用甲烷-氢基化学蚀刻 InP 的系统研究（60 ${}^{°}$C) 和高温下的氯基化学 (190 ${}^{°}$C）。