InGaAs surface preparation for atomic layer deposition by hydrogen cleaning and improvement with high temperature anneal

Using in situ atomic scale imaging with scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, a combination of atomic hydrogen dosing, annealing, and trimethyl aluminum dosing is observed to produce an ordered unpinned passivation layer on an air exposed InGaAs(001)-(4 × 2) surface with only monatomic steps. This shows that conventional gate-last semiconductor processing can be employed to fabricate a variety of electronic devices, even on air exposed compound semiconductors.