New electrolytes for n-type InP and electrochemical C-V profiling of a semiconductor optical amplifier device structure

New electrolyte systems for profiling n-type indium phosphide (InP) have been reported and are compared with the conventional HCl electrolyte. Among the new electrolytes, the electrolyte comprising HNO₃-HF-H₂O has better characteristics and is best suited for profiling InP material. Both epitaxial layers and substrate materials have been subjected to electrochemical carrier concentration profiling using the new electrolyte and the estimated concentration values are compared with that of Hall effect measurements. Barrier heights of the new electrolytes have been calculated. For the first time, the dopant profiling of a complete device structure grown by the chemical beam epitaxy technique for the realization of laser and semiconductor optical amplifier structures has been presented. Received: 1 February 1999 / Accepted: 1 April 1999