Investigation on the strain relaxation of InGaN layer and its effects on the InGaN structural and optical properties

The evolution of strain and structural properties of thick epitaxial InGaN layers grown on GaN with different thicknesses are investigated. It is found that, with increase in InGaN thickness, plastic relaxation via misfit dislocation generation becomes a more important strain relaxation mechanism. Accompanied with the relaxation of compressive strain, the In composition of InGaN layer increases and induces an apparent red-shift of the cathodoluminescence peak of the InGaN layer. On the other hand, the plastic relaxation process results in a high defect density, which degrades the structural and optical properties of InGaN layers. A transition layer region with both strain and In composition gradients is found to exist in the 450-nm-thick InGaN layer.

The exciton-longitudinal-optical-phonon coupling in InGaN/GaN single quantum wells with various cap layer thicknesses

This paper studies the exciton-longitudinal-optical-phonon coupling in InGaN/GaN single quantum wells with various cap layer thicknesses by low temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurements With increasing cap layer thickness, the PL peak energy shifts to lower energy and the coupling strength between the exciton and longitudinal-optical (LO) phonon, described by Huang-Rhys factor, increases remarkably due to an enhancement of the internal electric field With increasing excitation intensity, the zero-phonon peak shows a blueshift and the Huang-Rhys factor decreases These results reveal that there is a large built-in electric field in the well layer and the exciton-LO phonon coupling is strongly affected by the thickness of the cap layer

X-RAY-SCATTERING FROM A ROUGH-SURFACE AND DAMAGED LAYER OF POLISHED WAFERS

Theoretical and experimental investigations were performed to show the application of x-ray crystal truncation rod scattering combined with x-ray reflectivity in the measurements of surface roughness and near-surface damage of mechanochemically polished wafers. By fitting the measured crystal truncation rod curves it has been shown that polished wafers are divided into three parts -irregular steps on the surface, a damaged thin layer beneath the surface and a perfect bulk. The results show that the root mean square of the surface roughness of mechanochemically polished Fe-doped and/or S-doped InP wafers is one to two atom layers, and that the lateral correlation length of the surface roughness is about 3000-7500 Angstrom. The thickness of the damaged region is found to be about 1000 atom layers.

ESTIMATION OF THE STRAIN STATE OF GEXSI1-X/SI STRAINED-LAYER SUPERLATTICES BY DOUBLE-CRYSTAL X-RAY-DIFFRACTION

20-period strained-layer superlattices of nominal composition and width Ge0.2Si0.8 (5 nm)/Si(25 nm) and Ge0.5Si0.5 (5 nm)/Si(25 nm) were studied by double-crystal X-ray diffraction. The Ge content x was determined by computer simulation of the diffraction features from the superlattice. This method is shown to be independent of the relaxation of the superlattice. Alternatively, x can be obtained from the measured difference DELTAa/a in lattice spacing perpendicular to the growth plane. It is sensitive to the relaxation. Comparing the results obtained in these two different ways, information about the relaxation of the superlattices can be obtained.

COMPARISON BETWEEN THE INFLUENCES OF LAYER THICKNESSES AND ALAS MOLE FRACTION-X ON VERTICAL-CAVITY SURFACE-EMITTING LASERS

Based on the n(x, lambda), the calculation of the reflection spectrum for vertical cavity surface emitting lasers shows that the deviation of the central wavelength caused by the change of layer thickness is much more than that caused by the change of AlAs mole fractions. Therefore the control of the MBE growth rate is very important.

DETERMINATION OF THE CONDUCTION-BAND OFFSET OF A SINGLE ALGAAS BARRIER LAYER USING DEEP-LEVEL TRANSIENT SPECTROSCOPY

The tunneling from an AlGaAs confined thin layer to a GaAs layer in the GaAs/Al0.33Ga0.67As/GaAs structure during the trapped electron emission from deep level in the AlGaAs to its conduction band has been observed by deep level transient spectroscopy. With the aid of the tunneling effect, the conduction-band offset DELTAE(c) was determined to be 0.260 eV, corresponding to 63% of DELTAE(g). A calculation was also carried out based on this tunneling model by using the experimental value of DELTAE(c) = E2 - E1 = 0. 260 eV, and good agreement between the experimental and calculated curves is obtained.

A NEW TYPE OF SILICON-ON-INSULATOR WITH A PERFECT SURFACE SILICON LAYER

A novel silicon structure consisting of a silicon-on-defect layer (SODL), with enhanced surface Hall mobility in the surface layer on a buried defect layer (DL), has been discovered [J. Li, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B59/60 (1991) 1053]. SODL material was formed by using proton implantation and subsequent two-step annealing. The implantation was carried out with a Varian 350D ion implanter. Based on the discovery, a standard measurement method (current-voltage curve method) was adopted to measure the true resistivity value of the DL in order to replace the spreading resistivity measurement by which the true resistivity in seriously defective silicon cannot be obtained. By adopting the current-voltage current method, the true resistivity value of the DL is measured to be 4.2 x 10(9) OMEGA cm. The SODL material was proved to be a silicon-on-insulator substrate.