Induced defects in plasma-etched p-type indium phosphide
Plasma-etched p-type indium phosphide has been studied by I-V, C-V and deep level transient spectroscopy in the form of Schottky diodes. Plasma etching caused an increase in the barrier height of Schottky diodes. Four majority hole defects were found to be induced by plasma etching, and were distributed within 5000 AA of the surface. Two dominant hole defects H3 and H4 were simply annealed at approximately 100 degrees C for 10 minutes. These defects were found to be similar to those induced in InP by high energy electron or proton irradiation. This implies that sputtering and related pre-processing techniques may induce severe problems for surface devices due to the creation of defects.