Effect of rapid thermal annealing on the Raman spectrum of Si0.33Ge0.67/Si (100) alloy

The effect of thermal annealing on the Raman spectrum of Si0.33Ge0.67 alloy grown on Si (100) by molecular beam epitaxy is investigated in the temperature range of 550-800 degrees C. For annealing below 700 degrees C, interdiffusion at the interface is negligible and the residual strain plays the dominant role in the Raman shift. The strain-shift coefficients for Si-Ge and Ge-Ge phonon modes are determined to be 915 +/- 215 cm(-1) and 732 +/- 117 cm(-1), respectively. For higher temperature annealing, interdiffusion is significant and strongly affects the Raman shift and the spectral shape.

Effect of rapid thermal annealing on electron emission and DX centers in strained InGaAs/GaAs single quantum well laser diodes

nThermal processing of strained ln(0.2)Ga(0.8)As/GaAs graded-index separate confinement heterostructure single quantum well laser diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy is investigated. It was found that rapid thermal annealing can improve the 77 K photoluminescence efficiency and electron emission from the active layer, due to removal of nonradiative centers from the InGaAs/GaAs interface. Because of the interdiffusion of Al and Ga atoms, rapid thermal annealing increases simultaneously the density of DX centers in the AlGaAs graded layer. The current stressing experiments of post-growth and annealed laser diodes are indicative of a corresponding increase in the concentration of DX centers, suggesting that DX centers may be responsible for the degradation of laser diode performance.