Electrical Characterization Of Defects Introduced During Plasma-Based Processing Of GaAs

DLTS revealed that each plasma type (He and SiCl4) introduced its own characteristic set of defects. Some of the defects created during He processing and one defect introduced by SiCl4 etching had identical electronic properties to those introduced during high energy (MeV) He ion bombardment. SiC14etching introduced only two prominent defects, one of which is metastable with electronic properties similar to a metastable defect previously reported in high and low energy He-ion bombardment of Si-doped GaAs. IV measurements demonstrated that the characteristics of SBDs fabricated on He-ion processed surfaces were very poor compared to those of control diodes (diodes fabricated on surfaces cleaned by conventional wet etching). In contrast, the properties of SBDs fabricated on SiCl4 etched surfaces were as good as, and in some cases superior to, those of control diodes. SBDs fabricated on annealed (at 450°C for 30 minutes) He-processed samples exhibited improved but still poor rectification. In contrast, SBDs fabricated on annealed SiCl4 etched surfaces had virtually the same characteristics as those fabricated on unannealed SiCl4 etched samples.