OMVPE growth of In0.53Ga0.47As on InP using tertiarybutylarsine

We have successfully grown bulk In_0.53Ga_0.47As on InP using tertiarybutylarsine (TBA), trimethylindium and trimethylgallium. The growth temperature was 602° and the V/III ratio ranged from 19 to 38. Net carrier concentrations were 2 – 4 × 10¹⁵ cm^-3, n-type, with a peak 77 K mobility of 68,000 cm²/V. sec. Increasing compensation was observed in In_0.53Ga_0.47As grown at higher V/III ratios. PL spectra taken at 5 K revealed strong near bandgap emission at 0.81 eV—with the best sample having a FWHM of 2.5 meV. At lower energies, donor-acceptor pair transitions were evident. Strong and sharp 5 K PL emission was observed from InP/In_0.53Ga_0.47As/InP quantum wells grown with TBA.     

Fe and Ti implants in In0.52Al0.48As

Single (200 keV) and multiple energy Fe implants in n-type and Ti implants in p-type material were performed in In_0.52Al_0.48As at both room temperature and 200°C. For the Fe implants, the secondary ion mass spectrometry profiles showed a severe out-diffusion for all rapid thermal annealing schemes used, independent of the implantation temperature. The Fe implant peaks observed after annealing, at 0.8Rp, Rp+ΔRp and 2Rp (where Rp and ΔRp are range and straggle, respectively) depth locations in other In-based compounds like InP and InGaAs were not observed here. On the contrary, Ti implants showed only a slight in- and out-diffusion for both room temperature and 200°C implants as in the case of InP and InGaAs. The Rutherford backscattering measurements on the annealed samples implanted at 200°C showed a crystal quality similar to that of the virgin material. The resistivity of all the samples after annealing was higher than 10⁶ Ω-cm.     

The behavior of unintentional impurities in Ga0.47 In0.53As grown by MBE

A number of factors contribute to the high n-type background carrier concentration (high 10¹⁵ to low 10¹⁶ cm⁻³) measured in MBE Ga_0.47In_0.53As lattice-matched to InP. The results of this study indicate that the outdiffusion of impurities from InP substrates into GalnAs epitaxial layers can account for as much as two-thirds of the background carrier concentration and can reduce mobilities by as much as 40%. These impurities and/or defects can be gettered at the surfaces of the InP by heat treatment and then removed by polishing. The GalnAs epitaxial layers grown on the heat-treated substrates have significantly improved electrical properties. Hall and SIMS measurements indicate that both donors and acceptors outdiffuse into the epitaxial layers during growth resulting in heavily compensated layers with reduced mobilities. The dominant donor species was identified by SIMS as Si, and the dominant acceptors as Fe, Cr and Mn.     

Properties of Zn-doped P-type In0.53Ga0.47as grown by vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) on InP substrates

Electrical properties of Zn-doped, p-type In_0.53Ga_0.47As grown by the vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) technique are presented. High (p ∼ 4.0 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³) p-type doping and low resistivity (ρ ∼ 2.8 × 10⁻³ Ωsu−cm) was obtained. These propertie's are useful in the formation of ohmic contacts in laser diodes and photodiodes fabricated from the quaternary and ternary alloy systems. A calibration curve for the non-destructive determination of carrier concentration from photoluminescence linewidths has been obtained.     

Capacitance-voltage profiling and thermal evolution of the conduction band-offset of unstrained Ga0.47In0.53As/InP single quantum well

We report the results of capacitance-voltage (C-V) and Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements performed upon a Ga_0.47In_0.53As/InP quantum well structure. At room temperature, a conduction-band offset ΔE_c=(200±10)meV and charge densities σ_I=±(3±1)*10¹¹ times the electronic charge per cm² have been measured from C-V experiments. At lower temperature (T≤150K) we have observed an important decrease of the band-offset, considerably larger than a pure thermal effect. We have shown that the explanation lies in the presence of a high concentration of deep traps located at the well-barrier interfaces. Two species A and B have been detected through DLTS experiments with activation energies E_tA=90 meV and E_tB=195 meV, respectively. The filling of these trap levels at low temperature lowers the band offset from 200 to 120 meV, owing to band repulsion effects.     

The formation of elevated barrier height Schottky diodes to inp and In0.53Ga0.47as using thin,excimer laser-deposited Cd interlayers

Much recent attention has been paid to elevating the barrier height of contacts to InP and In_0.53Ga_{0. 47}As via the formation of a thin, intermediate layer between the semicon-ductor and a conventionally deposited, highly conductive contact layer. Here, we report on the use of thin (～200Å) excimer laser photodeposited Cd as an interlayer between these semiconductors and Au overlayers in order to raise the barrier height of the re-sulting diodes. Current-voltage measurements of ideal Schottky diodes fabricated using this process yield barrier heights of 0.70 eV and 0.55 eV to InP and In_0.53Ga_{0. 47}As, re-spectively. The photodeposition process has been integrated with conventional clean room processing resulting in Au/Cd/In_0.53Ga_{0. 47}As transistors with high transconductances (～200 mS/mm) and operating frequencies (f _max ～ 30 GHz). X-ray photoelectron spec-troscopy of thin Cd photodeposits on InP shows that the process produces an interfacial (～10Å thick) Cd-InP reaction zone covered by metallic Cd.     

Accurate determination of the band-offset of a quantum semiconductor structure from its capacitance-voltage profile: Application to an InP/Ga0.47In0.53As/InP single quantum well

We discuss the possible analysis of an electron distribution obtained by capacitance-voltage profiling for the determination of the conduction band offset of a single quantum well. We show that, for this method which requires only relatively light experimental equipment, a nonconsuming computational time interpretation can be set up within a quite satisfactory degree of accuracy. As an application, we report the study of a lattice matched InP/Ga_0.47In_0.53As/InP quantum well for which we get ΔE_c = (200±10) meV, in good agreement with other measurements upon this system.     

Effects of surface passivation during atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 on In0.53Ga0.47As substrates

In this work we investigate the effect of different III-V surface passivation strategies during atomic layer deposition of Al₂O₃. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicates that bare As-decapped and sulfur passivated In_0.53Ga_0.47As present residual oxides on the surface just before the beginning of the Al₂O₃ deposition while the insertion of a Ge interface passivation layer results in an almost oxide free Ge/III-V interface. The study of the initial growth regimes, by means of in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry, shows that the growth of Al₂O₃ on Ge leads to an enhanced initial growth accompanied by the formation of Ge-O-Al species thus affecting the final electrical properties of the stack. Alternatively, deposition on decapped and S-passivated In_0.53Ga_0.47As results in a more controlled growth process. The sulfur passivation leads to a better electrical response of the capacitor that can be associated to a lower oxide/semiconductor interface trap density.