Formation of high aspect ratio GaAs nanostructures with metal-assisted chemical etching

Periodic high aspect ratio GaAs nanopillars with widths in the range of 500-1000 nm are produced by metal-assisted chemical etching (MacEtch) using n-type (100) GaAs substrates and Au catalyst films patterned with soft lithography. Depending on the etchant concentration and etching temperature, GaAs nanowires with either vertical or undulating sidewalls are formed with an etch rate of 1-2 μm/min. The realization of high aspect ratio III-V nanostructure arrays by wet etching can potentially transform the fabrication of a variety of optoelectronic device structures including distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and distributed feedback (DFB) semiconductor lasers, where the surface grating is currently fabricated by dry etching.