Self-organized InP islands on (100) GaAs by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

The effect of growth temperature, deposition rate, and substrate misorientation angle on size, density, and uniformity of InP islands grown on (100) GaAs by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy is investigated. The density of InP islands is observed to remain constant as a function of growth temperature in the temperature range of 620–680 °C. Below 620 °C the island density increases with decreasing temperature. Above 605 °C a subset of islands having a uniform size is observed. The degree of uniformity depends largely on the deposition rate and the size of the uniform islands on the growth temperature.Peer reviewe

Simultaneous determination of indium and nitrogen contents of InGaAsN quantum wells by optical in situ monitoring

In situ monitoring of metal-organic vapor phase epitaxialgrowth of InGaAsN∕GaAs multiquantum wells is studied. The complex refractive index of InGaAsN is determined for several indium and nitrogen contents based on the fits to the reflectance curve. Taking advantage of the different effects caused by the incorporation of indium and nitrogen on the complex refractive index of InGaAsN, the InGaAsN quantum well nitrogen and indium contents are simultaneously determined in situ.Peer reviewe

Temperature dependence of carrier relaxation in strain-induced quantum dots

We report experimental observation and theoretical interpretation of temperature-dependent, time-resolved luminescence from strain-induced quantum dots. The experimental results are well described by a master equation model for the electrons. The intraband relaxation in the conduction band and the radiative recombination rate are governed by the hole populations resulting in prominent temperature dependence of the relaxation process. Even when only a few electrons and holes are confined in a single quantum dot the Auger-like process provides a rapid intraband relaxation channel for electrons that can replace the phonon scattering as the dominant relaxation mechanism.Peer reviewe

In situ determination of InGaAs and GaAsN composition in multiquantum-well structures

Metal-organic vapor phase epitaxialgrowth of InGaAs/GaAs and GaAsN/GaAs multiquantum-well (MQW) structures was monitored by in situ reflectometry at 635 nm using a normal incidence reflectance setup. The reflectance signal is found to change significantly during both quantum-well (QW) and barrier growth regions. A matrix method is used to calculate the theoretical reflectance curve and comparing the theoretical curves to the measured ones the complex refractive index of the ternary alloys are derived. Consequently, when the behavior of the complex refractive indices of InGaAs and GaAsN is known as a function of composition, the composition of all the QWs in the MQW strucure can be determined in situ.Peer reviewe

Strain-induced quantum dots by self-organized stressors

Novel in situ method to produce quantum dots is reported. Three‐dimensional confinement of carriers to a GaInAs/GaAs quantum welldots is observed by photoluminescence. The confinement potential is induced by stressors, formed by self‐organizing growth of InP nanoscale islands on top barrier GaAssurface. Two transitions arising from the strain‐induced quantum dots produced by two types of InP islands are identified. The luminescence from higher electronic states of the quantum dots having a level splitting of 8 meV is also observed.Peer reviewe

Cascaded exciton emission of an individual strain-induced quantum dot

Single strain-induced quantum dots are isolated for optical experiments by selective removal of the inducing InP islands from the sample surface. Unpolarized emission of single, bi- and triexciton transitions are identified by power-dependent photoluminescence spectroscopy. Employing time-resolved experiments performed at different excitation powers we find a pronounced shift of the rise and decay times of these different transitions as expected from cascaded emission. Good agreement is found for a rate equation model for a three step cascade

Comparison of ammonia plasma and AlN passivation by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition

Surface passivation of GaAs by ammonia plasma and AlN fabricated by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition are compared. It is shown that the deposition temperature can be reduced to 150 °C and effective passivation is still achieved. Samples passivated by AlN fabricated at 150 °C show four times higher photoluminescence intensity and longer time-resolved photoluminescence lifetime than ammonia plasma passivated samples. The passivation effect is shown to last for months. The dependence of charge carrier lifetime and integrated photoluminescence intensity on AlN layer thickness is studied using an exponential model to describe the tunneling probability from the near-surface quantum well to the GaAssurface.Peer reviewe

Selective growth of InGaAs on nanoscale InP islands

The formation of an InGaAs quantum well on nanoscale InP islands by selective growth using metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy is demonstrated. The structures show intense low‐temperature photoluminescence at 1.35 eV. The blueshift of the emission peak by increasing the excitation intensity suggests that the carriers are three‐dimensionally confined. The insertion of quantum well into the islands allows a better control of the properties of structuresfabricated by the self‐organizing growth, a novel technique to realize nanoscale structures without using any lithographical process steps.Peer reviewe

In situ determination of nitrogen content in InGaAsN quantum wells

The growth of InGaAsN/GaAs multiple quantum well structures by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy is monitored by in situ reflectometry. The nitrogen incorporation is found to depend superlinearly on the precursor flow and a threshold value for the flow is observed. By in situmeasurements of the InGaAsN quantum well samples with a fixed indium content, the change in the reflectance during the quantum wellgrowth is found to be linearly dependent on the quantum well nitrogen content. A model to determine the nitrogen content already during the growth is developed. Moreover, the field of application of in situ reflectance monitoring is extended from thick layers to thin layers, including quantum wells.Peer reviewe