Super-flat (411)A interfaces and uniformly corrugated (775)B interfaces in GaAs/AlGaAs and InGaAs/InAlAs heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

Extremely flat interfaces, i.e. effectively atomically flat interfaces over a wafer-size area were realized in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells (QWs) grown on (411)A GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). These flat interfaces are called as “(411)A super-flat interfaces”. Besides in GaAs/AlGaAs QWs, the (411)A super-flat interfaces were formed in pseudomorphic InGaAs/AlGaAs QWs on GaAs substrates and in pseudomorphic and lattice-matched InGaAs/InAlAs QWs on InP substrates. GaAs/AlGaAs resonant tunneling diodes and InGaAs/InAlAs HEMT structures with the (411)A super-flat interfaces were confirmed to exhibit improved characteristics, indicating high potential of applications of the (411)A super-flat interfaces. High density, high uniformity and good optical quality were achieved in (775)B GaAs/(GaAs)m(AlAs)n quantum wires (QWRs) self-organized in a GaAs/(GaAs)m(AlAs)n QW grown on (775)B GaAs substrates by MBE. The QWRs were successfully applied to QWR lasers, which oscillated at room temperature for the first time as QWR lasers with a self-organized QWR structure in its active region. These results suggest that MBE growth on high index crystal plane such as (411)A or (775)B is very promising for developing novel semiconductor materials for future electron devices.