Large-area plan-view sample preparation for gaas-based systems grown by molecular beam epitaxy
✍ Scribed by Howard, David J. ;Paine, David C. ;Sacks, Robert N.
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 1991
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 453 KB
- Volume
- 18
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0741-0581
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
We describe a method for plan‐view transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample preparation that takes advantage of extreme etch‐rate selectivity in GaAs and AlAs in HF/H~2~O solutions. GaAs/In~x~Ga~1‐x~As/GaAs strained‐layer films (x = 0.05, 0.10, 0.19, 0.22) were chemically lifted off using this technique and were mounted on Cu TEM grids such that TEM transparent areas of up to 1 × 2 mm of constant thickness (196.4 nm) could be viewed. This simple, large‐area plan‐view technique uses only chemical methods and significantly extends the usefulness of TEM for the evaluation of crystal quality in GaAs‐based epitaxial systems. The method requires the growth of a release layer of AlAs (10 nm thick) prior to the layered structure of interest.