Dependence of dislocation multiplication on time, temperature, and stress distribution in strained InGaAs/InP quantum wells studied by x-ray topography

Abstract

Using x-ray topography, we studied the dependence of the dislocation multiplication in InxGa1−xAs/InP quantum wells on time, temperature, and stress distribution. We compared the dependence of the multiplication on annealing time and temperature with the empirical model for stress relaxation [B. W. Dodson, Appl. Phys. Lett. 51, 1325 (1987)]. We determined a dislocation glide activation energy and a material-specific constant for the model. We explained the dislocation density of as-grown single and multiple quantum wells considering the dislocation multiplication during growth, and show how the dislocation densities in the multiple quantum wells were reduced by introducing opposite strain into barrier layers.