Modeling of Charge Carrier Transport in Photoetching of Gallium Arsenide

The process of wet photoelectrochemical etching of GaAs was investigated with a numerical model that calculated the potential, electron, and hole distributions in a selectively illuminated semiconductor. The transport mechanisms associated with the etching process were studied. The model used the Galerkin Finite Element Method to solve the Poisson equation for the potential and the species balance equations for holes and electrons in two dimensions. Each species balance equation included terms for generation, recombination, diffusion and migration. A technique was developed to examine the sensitivity of the distribution of holes, electrons and the potential to the problem parameters including the reaction rate constant, diffusion coefficient of hole and electrons, doping concentration, light intensity, wavelength, and the recombination length. The sensitivity analysis technique facilitated the identification of the parameters for which the behavior of this complex, nonlinearly coupled system is most sensitive.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemical Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Mannheim, Edna

Contributors dc:contributor

• Alkire, Richard C.

• Engineering, Chemical
• Physics, Electricity and Magnetism

Identifier

(UMI)AAI9329108

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/72143