Effect of hydride vapor phase epitaxy growth conditions on the degree of atomic ordering in GaInP

Abstract

We report a systematic study of CuPt-type ordering in hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE)-grown Ga0.5In0.5P. Selected-area electron diffraction reveals ordering in samples grown on (001) GaAs substrates offcut toward (11¯1)B. The ordering is single-variant, occurring only on (11¯1)B planes and not on (1¯11)B. Quantitative analysis of the order parameter by high-resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD) indicates that ordering increases with deposition temperature in samples grown at 600–700 °C with a constant gas-phase V/III ratio ∼3. Ordering increases with V/III ratio in the range of 1.3–6.7 at a constant deposition temperature of 650 °C. Photoluminescence measurements correlate the order parameter with Ga0.5In0.5P bandgap contraction, though the contraction is larger than expected based on the magnitude of order parameters measured by HRXRD. A possible reason for this discrepancy is that the photoluminescence emission occurs in the lower bandgap ordered domains, which are small and evenly dispersed throughout the material. We also show that the degree of ordering decreases with growth rate, disappearing at ∼60 μm/h. The HVPE-grown material exhibits a generally weaker ordering than organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE)-grown material, likely due to the moderate V/III ratios employed, in contrast to the V/III ratios in the 100s typical of OMVPE. However, the tendency for ordering to increase with V/III ratio suggests that the same dimer-induced stress mechanism used to explain the occurrence of ordering in OMVPE-grown material also applies to HVPE. The tendencies for ordering to increase with deposition temperature and decrease with growth rate show that kinetics limit the degree of ordering, also in agreement with OMVPE trends.