Pulsed anodic oxides for III-V semiconductor device fabrication

A simple procedure for the rapid formation of uniform native oxides on various III-V semiconductor materials is described. A pulsed applied potential drives an anodic oxide formation process on the semiconductor immersed in a glycol:water:acid solution. Uniform oxides up to 2000 Å thick can be grown in a few minutes at room temperature and used to define areas for current injection into the semiconductor. AlGaAs diode lasers fabricated with 50-μm-wide current stripes defined by pulsed anodic oxide had threshold current densities substantially lower than lasers fabricated with 50-μm-wide stripes defined by chemical-vapor-deposited SiO2.