Soft-mask fabrication of gallium arsenide nanomembranes for integrated quantum photonics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simplified, cost-effective fabrication process for suspended GaAs membranes used in quantum photonic integrated circuits, emphasizing high structural quality and efficiency.

Contribution

The authors develop a single-lithography-step fabrication method that eliminates the need for hard masks, reducing time and costs while maintaining device quality.

Findings

Successful fabrication of high-quality suspended GaAs membranes

Reduction in fabrication time and costs

Detailed analysis of etching and cleaning procedures

Abstract

We report on the fabrication of quantum photonic integrated circuits based on suspended GaAs membranes. The fabrication process consists of a single lithographic step followed by inductively-coupled-plasma dry etching through an electron-beam-resist mask and wet etching of a sacrificial layer. This method does not require depositing, etching, and stripping a hard mask, greatly reducing fabrication time and costs, while at the same time yielding devices of excellent structural quality. We discuss in detail the procedures for cleaning the resist residues caused by the plasma etching and present a statistical analysis of the etched feature size after each fabrication step.