Hi Brent

Not my MBE, I say with equal parts regret and relief.

It's about the tenth consecutive fabrication job I've been given which
has been made several times harder for want of five minutes' speaking to
me about it first.  Grumble, grumble etc.

The eventual solution was a mechanical polish by a guy in another group,
the wax being something called paraphene (note to self - buy some).
Fingers crossed I can get the pieces off the enormous steel chuck as
suggested with a slug of warm acetone.  Ideas on chemical approaches
(and waxes) still welcome, just out of interest.

Anyway, many thanks for the help, Brent.

Andy

On 23/06/2010 14:33, Brent Garber wrote:
> Andrew,
>
> Are you still using indium to mount your wafers in your MBE? I stopped
> using that method 10 years ago and found VEECO sells wafer holders and
> custom holders for small pieces. I would think spinning photo resist on
> your front side and a good bake would provide plenty of front side
> protection if you still want to do a wet etch. Back when I did 1cm
> squares, I would use resist on the front and a cotton swab with nitric
> acid for a quick clean up of the indium. I didn't care about back side
> damage.
>
> Brent
>