Insight into the mechanism of lattice damage in ground and polished InAs substrates

Transmission electron microscopy was employed to investigate the micromorphological properties of subsurface lattice damage (SLD) in ground and rough polished indium arsenide (InAs) substrates. We show that the types and distributions of SLD defects in ground substrates and rough polished substrates are different, obviously, and are more complex compared to those in other hard-brittle materials. Remarkably, the depth of the SLD layer containing severely damaged regions, abnormal contrasts, and moiré fringes in rough polished substrates is three times deeper than that of the SLD layer composed of dislocations, stacking faults, and subsurface cracks in ground substrates. SLD in the rough polished substrate exhibits defect characteristics of lattice glide caused by the force applied during the polishing process. Formation mechanisms of SLD during grinding and rough chemical-mechanical polishing processes of the InAs substrates are discussed in view of removal behaviors of surface material and the evolution of stress fields.