Observation of "ghost" islands and surfactant effect of surface gallium atoms during GaN growth by molecular beam epitaxy

We observe "ghost" islands formed on terraces during homoepitaxial nucleation of GaN. We attribute the ghost islands to intermediate nucleation states, which can be driven into "normal" islands by scanning tunneling microscopy. The formation of ghost islands is related to excess Ga atoms on the surface. The excess Ga also affect island number density: by increasing Ga coverage, the island density first decreases, reaching a minimum at about 1 monolayer (ML) Ga and then increases rapidly for coverages above 1 ML. This nonmonotonic behavior points to a surfactant effect of the Ga atoms.

Anomalous temperature dependence of photoluminescence from InAs quantum dots

Self-assembled InAs quantum dots are fabricated on a GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. The dots are covered by several monolayers of In0.2Ga0.8As before a GaAs cap layer and an in situ postgrowth annealing is performed to tune the emission to higher energy. The temperature dependence of photoluminescence from this structure demonstrates a slower redshift rate of the peak position, a gradual broadening of the linewidth and an abnormal enhancement of integrated intensity as the temperature is increased from 15 to 300 K. These phenomena are closely related to the introduction of an InGaAs layer and to the intermixing of In and Ga atoms during annealing. We propose a model to explain the unusual increase in PL intensity, which fits the experimental data well. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)04618-1].

Effect of rapid thermal annealing on GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy

We have studied the effect of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs) grown by molecular-beam epitaxy using a dc plasma as the N source. It was found that RTA at low temperature (LT, 650 degrees C) and high temperature (HT, 900 degrees C) could both improve the QW quality significantly. To clarify the mechanism of quality improvement by RTA, a magnetic field perpendicular to the path of the N plasma flux was applied during the growth of the GaInNAs layers for the sake of comparison. It was found that LT-RTA mainly removed dislocations at interfaces related to the ion bombardment, whereas, HT-RTA further removed dislocations originating from the growth. LT-RTA caused only a slight blueshift of photoluminescence peak wavelength, probably due to defect-assisted interdiffusion of In-Ga at the QW interfaces. The blueshift caused by HT-RTA, on the other hand, was much larger. It is suggested that this is due to the fast defect-assisted diffusion of N-As at the QW interfaces. As defects are removed by annealing, the diffusion of In-Ga at interfaces would be predominant. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003- 6951(00)01535-7].

Experimental and numerical investigations on dissolution and recrystallization processes of GaSb/InSb/GaSb under microgravity and terrestrial conditions

The effects of gravity and crystal orientation on the dissolution of GaSb into InSb melt and the recrystallization of InGaSb were investigated under microgravity condition using a Chinese recoverable satellite and under normal gravity condition on earth. To investigate the effect of gravity on the solid/liquid interface and compositional profiles. a numerical simulation was carried out. The InSb crystal melted at 525 degrees C and then a part of GaSb dissolved into the InSb melt during heating to 706 degrees C and this process led to the formation of InGaSb solution. InGaSb solidified during the cooling process. The experimental and calculation results clearly show that the shape of the solid/liquid interface and compositional profiles in the solution were significantly affected by gravity. Under microgravity, as the Ga compositional profiles were uniform in the radial direction. the interfaces were almost parallel. On the contrary, for normal gravity condition, as large amounts of Ga moved up in the upper region due to buoyancy, the dissolved zone broadened towards gravitational direction. Also. during the cooling process, needle crystals of InGaSb started appearing and the value of x of InxGa1-xSb crystals increased with the decrease of temperature. The GaSb with the (111)B plane dissolved into the InSb melt much more than that of the (111)A plane. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Annealing effect on the surface morphology and photoluminescence of InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Postgrowth rapid thermal annealing was performed on InGaAs/GaAs quantum dots grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The blue shift of the emission peak and the narrowing of the luminescence line width are observed at lower annealing temperature. However, when the annealing temperature is increased to 850 degrees C, the emission line width becomes larger. The TEM image of this sample shows that the surface becomes rough, and some large clusters are formed, which is due to the interdiffusion of In, Ga atoms at the InGaAs/GaAs interface and to the strain relaxation. The material is found to degrade dramatically when the annealing temperature is further increased to 900 degrees C, while emission from quantum dots can still be detected, along with the appearance of the emission from excited state. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Raman scattering studies of III-V semiconductors grown on [n11]-oriented substrates

The room temperature Raman spectra of the Ga(0.5)Al(0.5)AS and the In0.52Al0.48As epilayer grown on [n11]-oriented substrates were measured in various back scatterng geometries, The relative intensity of TO modes and LO modes in those samples shows a regular Variation with differently oriented substrates in the experiments. By comparing experimental data with Raman scattering selection rules for the zincblende structure epilayer grown on [n11]-oriented substrates, it was found that the present calculations are in good agreement with the experimental results.

A novel 1.3-mu m high T-0 AlGaInAs/InP strained-compensated multi-quantum well complex-coupled distributed feedback laser diode

A 1.3-mu m AlGaInAs/InP buried heterostructure (BH) stripe distributed feedback laser with a novel AlInAs/InP complex-coupled grating grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) is proposed and demonstrated. A high characteristic temperature (T-0 = 90K between 20-80 degrees C) and temperature-insensitive slope efficiency (0.25 dB drop from 20 to 80 degrees C) in 1.3 mu m AlGaInAs/InP DFB lasers was obtained by introducing AI(Ga)InAs graded-index separate-confinement heterostructure (GRINSCH) layers and a strained-compensated (SC) multi-quantum well (MQW).

Influence of (001) vicinal GaAs substrates on the optical properties of defects in low-temperature grown GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum wells

Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and carrier lifetime measurement has been used to characterize optical properties of defects in the low-temperature (LT) grown GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well structures. Two sets of samples were grown at 400 degrees C by molecular beam epitaxy on nominal (001) and miscut [4 degrees off (001) towards (111) A] GaAs substrates, respectively. After growth, samples were subjected to 30 s rapid thermal annealing at 600-800 degrees C. It is found that after annealing, two defect-related PL features appear in the samples grown on nominal (001) GaAs substrates, but not in those grown on miscut (001) GaAs substrates. The carrier lifetimes are about 31 and 5 ps in as-grown samples grown on nominal and miscut (001) GaAs substrates, respectively. The different PL spectra and carrier lifetimes in two sets of samples are attributed to different structures of the As-Ga-like defects formed during LT growth. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)00230-2].

Hydrogen contaminant and its correlation with background electrons in GaN

GaN epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy using NH3 as the nitrogen source were found to contain hydrogen. We further notice that the background electron concentration in GaN can be correlated with the amount of hydrogen contaminant. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements of the N Is peak reveal that hydrogen is bound to nitrogen. This will make the corresponding Ga atom see insufficient N counterpart, as can be inferred from the XPS Ga 3d spectrum. We then think that nitrogen in the lattice terminated by hydrogen is an effective nitrogen vacancy and hence a donor accounting for the background electrons.

Electrical properties of GaN deposited on nitridated sapphire by molecular beam epitaxy using NH3 cracked on the growing surface

We have found that GaN epilayers grown by NH3-source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) contain hydrogen. Dependent on the hydrogen concentration, GaN on (0001) sapphire can be either under biaxially compressive strain or under biaxially tensile strain. Furthermore, we notice that background electrons in GaN increase with hydrogen incorporation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements of the N1s region indicate that hydrogen is bound to nitrogen. So, the microdefect Ga...H-N is an effective nitrogen vacancy in GaN, and it may be a donor partly answering for the background electrons. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Energy bands and acceptor binding energies of GaN

The energy bands of zinc-blende and wurtzite GaN are calculated with the empirical pseudopotential method, and the pseudopotential parameters for Ga and N atoms are-given. The calculated energy bands are in agreement with those obtained by the ab initio method. The effective-mass theory for the semiconductors of wurtzite structure is established, and the effective-mass parameters of GaN for both structures are given The binding energies of acceptor states are calculated by solving strictly the effective-mass equations. The binding energies of donor and acceptor are 24 and 142 meV for the zinc-blende structure, 20 and 131, and 97 meV for the wurtzite structure, respectively, which are consistent with recent experimental results. It is proposed that there are two kinds of acceptor in wurtzite GaN. One kind is the general acceptor such as C, which substitutes N, which satisfies the effective-mass theory. The other kind of acceptor includes Mg, Zn, Cd, etc., the binding energy of these accepters is deviated from that given by the effective mass theory. In this report, wurtzite GaN is grown by the molecular-beam epitaxy method, and the photoluminescence spectra were measured. Three main peaks are assigned to the donor-acceptor transitions from two kinds of accepters. Some of the transitions were identified as coming from the cubic phase of GaN, which appears randomly within the predominantly hexagonal material. [S0163-1829(99)15915-0].

Lateral ordered InGaAs self-organized quantum dots grown on (311) GaAs by conventional molecular beam epitaxy

Self-assembled InxGa1-xAs quantum dots (QDs) on (311) and (100) GaAs surfaces have been grown by conventional solid source molecular beam epitaxy. Spontaneously ordering alignment of InxGa1-xAs QDs with lower In content around 0.3 has been observed on As-terminated (B type) surfaces. The direction of alignment orientation of the QDs formation differs from the direction of misorientation of the (311) B surface, and is strongly dependent upon the In content x. The ordering alignment becomes significantly deteriorated as the In content is increased to above 0.5 or as the QDs are formed on (100) and (311) Ga-terminated (A type) substrates.

Low-temperature growth of cubic GaN by metalorganic chemical-vapor deposition

Low-temperature growth of cubic GaN at 520 degrees C was achieved using CCl4 as an additive by metalorganic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) on GaAs substrate. X-Ray measurement confirmed that the films are single-phase cubic GaN. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) were also used to analyze the surface morphology and the quality of films. The evolution of surface morphology suggests that CCl4 can reduce the hopping barrier and thus Ga adatoms are able to diffuse easily on the GaN surface. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Gallium diffusion through cubic GaN films grown on GaAs(100) at high-temperature using low-pressure MOVPE

Cubic GaN films were grown on GaAs(1 0 0) substrates by low-pressure metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy at high temperature. We have found a nonlinear relation between GaN film thickness and growth timer and this nonlinearity becomes more obvious with increasing growth temperature. We assumed it was because of Ga diffusion through the GaN film, and developed a model which agrees well with the experimental results. These results raise questions concerning the role of Ga diffusion through the GaN film, which may affect the electrical and optical properties of the material. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Improvement of stoichiometry in semi-insulating gallium arsenide grown under microgravity

A semi-insulating (SI) GaAs single crystal was recently grown in a retrievable satellite. The average etch pit density (EPD) of dislocations in the crystal revealed by molten KOH is 2.0 x 10(4) cm(-2), and the highest EPD is 3.1 x 10(4) cm(-2) This result indicates a quite good homogenity of the EPD which is much better than the ground-grown crystals. A similar better homogenity of the stoichiometry i.e., the [As]/([As] + [Ga]) ratio has been found in the space-grown SI-GaAs single crystal studied nondestructively using a new mapping method based upon X-ray Bond diffraction. The average stoichiometry in the space-grown crystal is 0.50007 with mean-square deviation of 6x10(-6), while the average stoichiometry in ground-grown SI-GaAs crystal is more than 0.50010. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.