title: Effects of ion etching on the properties of GaAs.
abstract: Effects of ion etching on the optical properties and lattice disorder of GaAs were studied by means of photoluminescence, He backscattering, and enhanced chemical etching. The photoluminescence intensity excited by a He-Cd laser (3250 A), which penetrates a distance of approximately 150 A into GaAs, is decreased to less than 20% of the initial value after ion etching by 100-eV Ar and recovered almost completely by 450 degrees C annealing. Helium backscattering and electron diffraction pattern indicate the existence of an amorphous layer, the thickness of which is 20% larger than the value estimated by LSS theory. Photoluminescence measurement shows that beyond this amorphous region there are distributed a lot of nonradiative recombination centers as well as radiative recombination centers which diffuse into the bulk. The depth of this distribution is larger than that of the amorphous region by 1 order of magnitude.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawabe
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kanzaki
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Masuda
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Namba