Vapor-phase etching of InP using anhydrous HCl and PH/sub 3/ gas

In situ etching of the substrate surface for vapor-phase epitaxy is a useful technique for obtaining a smooth and damage-free surface prior to the growth. Previous work showed that the incorporation of in situ etching of InP substrate with anhydrous HCl gas resulted in a significant improvement in the surface morphologies for MOVPE-grown InGaAs/InP and InP epitaxial layers. However, the experiment on the HCl etching of the InP substrate for a wide temperature range has not been performed as yet. In this note, the authors describe the effect of the substrate temperature on the etching morphology of InP substrate by using the anhydrous HCl and PH/sub 3/ gases. In the experiment, they used a standard MOVPE horizontal system. A quartz reactor tube in a 60 mm ID, 60 cm long, was employed.