InAsxPi.x/InP (10 period 50/100Å with x=0.25-0.79) pseudomorphically strained multiple quantum wells (SMQWs) were grown by gas source molecular beam expitaxy (GSMBE) at 470°C and characterized by cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (XTEM), double crystal x-ray diffraction (DCXRD), and optical spectroscopy. The structural analysis demonstrates that excellent control of the sharp interface and limited As-P interdiffusion can be achieved by GSMBE growth. XTEM images of these SMQWs display no misfit dislocations, and DCXRD scans reveal high order superlattice satellite peaks. Photoluminescence (PL) and transmission measurements were performed for all SMQWs to evaluate crystal quality. Only slight degradation in luminescence was observed as the As composition increased. Based on the three-band Kane model which includes the lattice strain, the transition energies of SMQWs were calculated using the conduction-band offset (Qc=δEc/δEg) as an adjustable parameter. The best fit of measured and calculated interband transition energies suggests that Qc is independent of As composition and is 0.70±0.05. Finally, a growth kinetics model based on the Langmuir equation was derived to realize the As/P incorporation ratio in the InAsP materials. Theoretical results show good agreement with experimental data.

A systematic study of the structural properties and defect distribution of GaAs layers grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on Si substrates misoriented 1°, 1.5°, 2°, 4°, and 6° from [100] toward [011] is reported. Double crystal x-ray rocking curves, cross-section and plan-view Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) are used to characterize the structural strain and defect distribution of as-grown and annealed GaAs layers. Both strain and defect density in the GaAs layers are found to be dependent of the degree of substrate misorientation as well as the direction in which measurements are made. Plan-view TEM shows an asymmetric distribution of microtwins in two perpendicular directions. There exists a correlation between the directionality of the strain and of the defect density. Furnace annealing at 850°C for 30 minutes in an arsine overpressure can reduce significantly the defects, the strain and the strain anisotropy. It is found that microtwins are of the highest density when the substrate is misoriented about 4 degrees for the as-grown samples. Though a reduction of defects after annealing occurs for all samples, the least misoriented one shows the most improvement.

A shallow acceptor-like defect labeled “A” is frequently incorporated in molecular beam epitaxial GaAs. We report here anomalous photoluminescence effects that are induced by this defect. With increasing concentration of the “A” defect: (1) neutral and ionized donor-bound exciton peaks disappear almost completely even for donor concentration as high as 7×1014 cm-3 and compensation ratio ND/NA≈0.3; (2) a new, sharp line emerges at 1.5138 eV, and (3) the relative intensity and line shape of the free exciton transition change dramatically. These observations are discussed in the perspective of previous reports, where similar effects were, in our opinion, misinterpreted.

We have studied the effects of adding small amounts of In (0.2-1.2%) to GaAs grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The density of four electron traps decreases in concentration by an order of magnitude, and the peak intensities of prominent emissions in the excitonic spectra are reduced with increase in In content. Based on the higher surface migration rate of In, compared to Ga, at the growth temperatures it is apparent that the traps and the excitonic transitions are related to point defects. This agrees with earlier observations by F. Briones and D. M. Collins [J. Electron. Mater. 11, 847 (1982)] and B. J. Skromme, S. S. Bose, B. Lee, T. S. Low, T. R. Lepkowski, R-Y. DeJule, G. E. Stillman, and J. C. M. Hwang [J. Appl. Phys. 58,4702 (1985)].

The effect of emitter cap growth conditions on the common-emitter current gain of InGaP/GaAs HBTs, grown by LP-MOCVD, has been studied. This work shows that the material quality of a carbon-doped base is highly dependent on the emitter cap growth. The emitter cap growth effectively serves as a source of thermal stress. This stress on the base during the emitter and cap growth causes the formation of carbon-related defects in the base that increase the base recombination and reduces the current gain. Atomic force microscopy is used to identify these carbon-related defects. Gain improvements of about 40% have been achieved by optimizing the emitter cap growth conditions to reduce the thermal stress.

Thin films of highly (100) textured fine-grain (lateral grain size ≅0.1 to 0.15 μm) PbZrxTi1−xO3 (PZT) (x = 0 to 0.7) were grown on conductive perovskite LaNiO3-buffered platinized Si substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Domain configuration and crystalline orientation were studied using x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The predominant domain boundaries of Ti-rich tetragonal-phase PZT and Zr-rich rhombohedral-phase PZT were found to be on the (110) planes and (100) planes, respectively. The equilibrium domain widths were observed and estimated numerically on the basis of transformation strain, grain size, and domain boundary energy. The peak value of the dielectric constant was 790 near the morphotropic boundary. Hysteresis behavior of these PZT thin films was demonstrated. A decrease in coercive field with the increment of Zr content was found; this variation was attributed to domain density and the multiplicity of polarization axes. Furthermore, the low leakage current (J ≤ 5 × 10−7 A/cm2 at V = 4 V) was observed for all samples, and the involvement of several possible conduction mechanisms was suggested.

Photoluminescence (PL) above the excitation energy is observed in a single GaAs-InGaP quantum well (QW) and heterostructure as well as in a InP-GaAs superlattice (SL) and in strained layers. It is shown that sub-gap excitation (1.468 eV) of n-type delta-doped GaAs/GaInP quantum structure leads to an up-converted hot carrier PL emission with energy gains as high as 450 meV. The up-conversion energy in GaAs-InGaP heterostructures is 50 meV which is originated from the GaAs layer. In InP-GaAs SL, the sub-gap excitation results in a hot PL at 1.55 eV. It is also shown that the sub-gap excitation can be used to confirm the changes in band energies of a strained layer.

Single strained layers of GaAs (25 Angstrom) and In0.7Ga0.3P (100 Angstrom) grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy between InP barriers have been investigated by low temperature photoluminescence measurements at 2 K. Intense luminescence emission was observed at 1.063 eV from the strained GaAs single quantum well in between InP barriers. The emission is attributable to recombination between the holes confined in the GaAs layer and impurities in the InP barrier in a type-II band gap alignment configuration. However, the structure is believed to be weakly type-II due to the possibility of recombination at deep levels in InP. For the In0.7Ga0,3P/InP structure, there is a broad emission at around 1.08 eV which is associated with deep levels, and InP band edge related peaks at higher energies confirming a band alignment of type-I. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ion implantation into III–V nitride materials is animportant technology for high-power and high-temperature digital and monolithic microwave integrated circuits. We report the results of the electrical, optical, and surface morphology of Si ion-implanted GaN films using furnace annealing. We demonstrate high sheet-carrier densities for relatively low-dose (n atoms =5×10 14 cm −2 ) Si implants into AlN/GaN/sapphire heteroepitaxial films. The samples that were annealed at 1150°C in N 2 for 5 min exhibited a smooth surface morphology and a sheet electron concentration n s ∼9.0×10 13 cm −2 , corresponding to an estimated 19% electrical activation and a 38% Si donor activation in GaN films grown on sapphire substrates. Variable-temperature Hall-effect measurem entsindicate a Si donor ionization energy ∼15 meV.

In this work, a recently developed full-wave electromagnetic analysis technique is applied to the simulation of two-dimensional finite quasi-random gratings for quantum well infrared photodetectors. This steepest descent fast multipole method is a mathematically rigorous technique that permits the rapid and accurate solution of the electric field integral equation governing scattering from a quasi-planar structure. In the present application, it enables the efficient and accurate simulation of scattering by finite two-dimensional grating structures interfacing with GaAs. Grating absorption is predicted by evaluating the scattered optical electric field component at the device layer along the growth direction. Numerical examples illustrating the functional dependence of the absorption on grating parameters and wavelength are discussed. The simulation approach presented here should prove to be a useful tool for the a priori design of novel aperiodic, quasi-random and rough surface two-dimensional gratings for infrared imaging applications.

Gex single quantum wells (x=0.19) grown by rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition at 625 °C. A well-resolved strong excitonic luminescence with TO-phonon and no-phonon transitions with a full width at half-maximum as low as 6 meV is observed for a quantum well of 98 Å. The photoluminescence emission shows a significant blue shift and a broadening with excitation intensity. The results are analysed in terms of localization of photoinduced charge carriers at the heterointerfaces.

We present in this article device characteristics of molecular beam epitaxy grown GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIP) on a semi-insulating GaAs substrate and on a GaAs-on-Si substrate grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Important issues for QWIP application such as dark current, spectral response, and absolute responsivity were measured. We find that the detector structure grown on a GaAs-on-Si substrate exhibits comparable dark current and absolute responsivity and a small blue shift in the spectral response. This is the first demonstration of long wavelength GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well infrared photodetector using MOCVD grown GaAs-on-Si substrate and the performance is comparable to a similar detector structure grown on a GaAs substrate.

Intermixing of the well and barrier layers in quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) can be used to realize a broadened spectral response as well as multiple color detectors. We describe die experimental results of both rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and laser annealing (LA) QWIPs operating in the 8-12µm regime. The peak spectral response of the annealed detectors was shifted to longer wavelength as compared to die as-grown detectors. In general, a decrease in detector performance after annealing is also observed which may be attributable to a change in the absorption coefficient caused by the out-diffiision of dopants during annealing. Recent advances in growth technology, complimented by innovative structures should offset any degredation in performance. Thus, the post-growth control of the composition profiles by annealing offers opportunities to fine tune various aspects of a QWIP’s response.

We present the studies of the thermal stability of various metal including Au, Ti, Pt, Pd and Pt/Ti/Pt/Au Schottky contacts on strained Ga 0.2 In 0.8 P/InP semiconductors. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) analysis and cross-sectional TEM of the thermally annealed Schottky diode were performed to investigate the failure mechanism. For Pt/Ti/Pt/Au schottky contacts on strained GalnP/InP, no significant change was found for samples annealed up to 350°C. However, a drastic degradation of the barrier height and the ideality factor was observed in samples annealed at 400°C, which may be caused by the interdiffusion and penetration of metals into the semiconductor. Finally InGaAs/InP doped channel heterojunction FET’s (DC-HFET’s) with a GaInP Schottky barrier enhancement layer (SBEL) were grown and fabricated. The 0.25 μm gate-length devices showed excellent DC and RF performance, with an f i of 117 GHz and an f max of 168 GHz.