Laser Induced Local Etching of Gallium Arsenide in Gas Atmosphere

Abstract

Pyrolytic local etching of GaAs using focussed Ar laser beams in CCl₄ gas atmosphere was performed to investigate the possibility of maskless etching processes by laser beams. Etching was found to take place only for the laser-irradiated area and etching rates from 0.3 to 40 µm/scan with an etched linewidth from 7 to 70 µm were obtained at CCl₄ pressure of 80 Torr. A carbon line buried in GaAs was, for the first time, obtained for a single scan of a laser beam with low scanning speeds.