Fabrication of self-masked InP nanopillars by electron cyclotron resonance ion etching

Fabrication of high quality InP nanopillar structures, with the help of self-masking properties and using the electron cyclotron resonance ion etching techniques, can be a easy demanding and one step large scale production method compared to the traditional, expensive and multi-step complicated methods. In this paper regular arrays of crystalline and high aspect ratio InP nanopillars were fabricated by low energy electron cyclotron resonance Ar+ ion irradiation technique. Several scanning electron microscopy images were utilized to investigate the width, height, and orientation of these nanopillars. The average width and length of these nano-pillars were about 50 nm and 500 nm, respectively. Cross-sectional high resolution transmission electron microscopy studies revealed that these nanopillars are crystalline in nature. Photoluminescence measurements also revealed the crystalline nature as well as the enhancement in PL intensity due to the large surface area of the nanopillars.