Optical assessment of reactive ion etched ZnTe and ZnSe for nanostructures

Abstract We have developed a reactive ion etching (RIE) process capable of producing nanostructures in ZnTe and ZnSe epitaxial layers. Wires of width down to 65 nm and dots with diameter down to 50 nm have been obtained using CH 4 /H 2 . The optical properties of (RIE) etched epitaxial layers have been investigated. The deep level emission of control and etched samples decreases substantially after annealing, revealing much finer structure especially for ZnTe. Raman scattering has shown no detectable damage induced by the etching process in both ZnTe and ZnSe.