Engineering Commons^™

Optical And Etching Studies Of Native Aluminum Oxide Layers For Use In Microcavity Photonic Devices, William L. Bernhard

Theses and Dissertations

Optical communication and computing systems are required to meet future information transfer and processing needs. Microcavity devices serve as an enabling technology to implement and integrate optoelectronic systems. It is important to understand the optical and mechanical properties of materials utilize within microcavity devices. Only then is it possible to accurately model and analyze structures. Microcavity structures incorporating a high aluminum content AlGaAs layers are designed, grown, processed, and measured. The processing of these devices includes the conversion of high aluminum-content AlGaAs layers to native aluminum oxide (AlO) layers through the process of thermal oxidation. This selective conversion of microcavity …