MBE Growth of Nitride-Arsenide Materials for long Wavelength Opto-electronics

Abstract

Nitride-Arsenide materials were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) using a radio frequency (rf) nitrogen plasma. The plasma conditions that maximize the amount of atomic nitrogen versus molecular nitrogen were determined using the emission spectrum of the plasma. Under constant plasma source conditions and varying group III flux, the nitrogen concentration in the film is inversely proportional to the group III flux (i. e. the nitrogen sticking coefficient is unity). The relationship between nitrogen concentration in the film and lattice parameter of the film is not linear for nitrogen concentrations above 2.9 mole % GaN, indicating that some nitrogen is incorporated on other locations than the group V lattice sites. For films with these higher nitrogen concentrations, XPS indicates that the nitrogen exists in two configurations: a Gallium-Nitrogen bond and another type of nitrogen complex in which nitrogen is less strongly bonded to Gallium atoms. Annealing removes this nitrogen complex and allows some of the nitrogen to diffuse out of the film. Annealing also improves the crystal quality of GaAsN quantum wells.