TABLE OF CONTENTS O.R. Monteiro
This Datareview appeared in Properties of Indium Phosphide (INSPEC, IEE, London, UK, 1991) and is reproduced here for the reader's convenience.
Most work on the oxidation of InP has aimed at the use of this material for metal-insulator-semiconductor field effect transistors (MISFET). The evolution of the InP-based MISFET technology requires a thorough understanding of the InP/native oxide interface, as well as the dielectric layers produced on InP. The oxidation processes most frequently discussed in the literature can be divided into three groups: thermal, anodic and plasma assisted oxidation. This Datareview will treat each one of these groups separately. Prior to doing so, the work on native oxides is presented, because of its technological importance.
In treating oxidation of InP, the pure thermochemical approach [26] to predict oxide compositions has important limitations, since it assumes that thermodynamic rather than kinetic factors dominate either the growth or the reaction processes. Another shortcoming is the neglect of losses due to high volatility phases and thermal decomposition [5, 6, 17]. Hence the importance of experimental work for detailed characterisation of the oxides.
Although the term native oxide has been sometimes used to describe any product of oxidation, here I shall limit this term only to those oxides that have been produced by the exposure of fresh surfaces to ambient conditions. Native oxides on (110) [13, 14] and on (100) surfaces [33] have been characterised by photoelectron spectroscopy using ultra-violet light (UPS) and...
