Abstract. In this paper, we study and characterize the cracking behavior of a sol-gel-derived amorphous silica film on a InP substrate. The sol-gel silica films are deposited by spin-coating and rapid thermal processing (RTP). It is observed that the volatility of the III-V semiconductor results in the cracking of the films when the annealing temperature is higher than 450C, and that the crack patterns are all parallel or perpendicular to <100>. The experimental results on the crack patterns in the sol-gel silica films are then theoretically analyzed. In addition, the critical thicknesses of the sol-gel films on InP are compared with those deposited on Si.
