Influence of the Etching Material Deposition Rate and Annealing Time on Nanohole Morphology Etched into InP/In0.52Al0.48As Layers via Local Droplet Epitaxy

Local droplet etching and subsequent refilling enables the fabrication of highly symmetric quantum dots with low fine structure splitting, suitable for generating polarization entangled photons. While well established in GaAs/AlxGa1−xAs, this approach does not yield emission in the telecom bands required for low loss fiber-based quantum communication. To achieve emission at 1.55 μm, local droplet etching must be adapted to alternative material platforms such as InP. Here, we systematically investigate how the etching material deposition rate and etching time influence nanohole morphology in In0.52Al0.48As layers lattice-matched to InP. In the first experiment, InAl was deposited at fluxes of 0.2–4.0 Å s−1 at Tetch = 350 °C and 460 °C. Lower fluxes produced nanoholes with lower density and larger ring diameters, indicating fewer and larger initial droplets, consistent with scaling theory. The average nanohole diameter decreased monotonically with increasing flux, whereas the average depth showed no clear dependence on flux. In the second experiment, etching times of 30–600 s were tested for InAl, In, and Al droplets. Average nanohole diameters remained constant for Al across all etching times, but decreased for In and InAl with increasing etching time, suggesting sidewall redeposition during etching. For all droplet types, depths peaked at intermediate times and decreased for prolonged etching, consistent with material diffusion into the nanohole after droplet consumption.