Purified water etching of native oxides on heteroepitaxial CdTe thin films

The etching of native oxides on compound semiconductors is an important step in the production of electronic and optoelectronic devices. Although it is known that the native oxide on CdTe can be etched through a rinsing in purified water, a deeper investigation into this process has not been done. Here we present results on both surface morphology changes and reaction rates for purified water etching of the native oxide on heteroepitaxial CdTe …