Vapor Drying for Preparing InGaAsP for Epitaxial Regrowth

A vapor drying treatment removes traces of water and other contaminant residues that remain on the surface of a patterned semiconductor substrate after chemical cleaning in preparation for subsequent epitaxial growth on the substrate. The treatment was developed in conjunction with attempts at epitaxial regrowth of first-order gratings for distributed-feedback lasers in the InGaAsP material system.