Controlled Formation of Narrow and Uniform InP-Based In0.53Ga0.47As Ridge Quantum Wire Arrays by Selective Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Abstract

Attempts have been made to form precisely size-controlled, narrow and highly uniform In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As ridge quantum wire arrays by selective molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on patterned InP substrates. Precise size control of the wire has become possible by combining (1) control of the wire width through the growth time of the underlying InAlAs barrier layer and (2) the semi-self-limiting growth phenomenon in InGaAs wire layer growth. As a result, a minimum wire width of 35 nm was achieved in a controlled fashion. This wire showed large blue shift in the transition energy of 400 meV, which is the largest value ever reported for selectively grown InP-based InGaAs quantum wires. Using a high-temperature-grown InGaAs buffer layer, the wire uniformity was drastically improved, resulting in a minimum photoluminescence (PL) peak width of 28 meV, which indicates that the uniformity of the present wire is also the best of all the selectively grown InP-based InGaAs quantum wires reported so far.