Quantum Well Wire Fabrication Method Using Self-Organized Multiatomic Steps on Vicinal (001) GaAs Surfaces by Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy

Abstract

Coherent multiatomic steps with extremely straight edges are naturally formed on vicinal (001) GaAs surfaces during metalorganic vapor phase epitaxial growth. GaAs quantum well wires (QWWs) are formed on these self-organized multiatomic steps. In our previous study, a thin AlGaAs layer was grown on GaAs with multiatomic steps as a lower barrier of QWWs. However, the height and spacing of the steps slightly fluctuate on AlGaAs layer surfaces. Therefore, in this experiment, AlAs layer instead of AlGaAs layer was used as a lower barrier layer to improve the uniformity of the height and spacing of the steps. Atomic force microscopy observations and photoluminescence (PL) measurements at 20 K revealed that the underlying coherent GaAs multiatomic steps were well traced by the AlAs barrier layer rather than the AlGaAs barrier layer. Furthermore, we measured the polarization anisotropy of the PL spectra from the QWWs with AlAs. These results suggest that uniform QWWs are successfully formed using multiatomic steps on vicinal (001) GaAs surfaces.