Hydrogen passivation in InP:Zn resulting from reactive ion etching during laser stripe formation

The passivation of zinc acceptors in an InP layer after reactive ion etching (RIE) using CH4/H2 has been investigated. Evidence is provided that the (P-H Zn) complex is responsible for the passivation. The recovery of the hole concentration needs a reactivation energy of 1.05 eV. In spite of the passivation of the exposed p-InP areas during buried heterostructure laser contact stripe formation by RIE, the U-I characteristics are unaffected because inside the contact stripe remains a sufficiently large non-passivated p-InP channel.