The effects of annealing on the structural, optical, and vibrational properties of lattice-matched GaAsSbN∕GaAs grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

The structural, optical, and vibrational properties of a GaAsSbN epilayer lattice matched to GaAs with a band gap of 1eV have been investigated using a variety of characterization techniques. These layers have potential applications in GaAs based tandem solar cells that utilize the near infrared region of the solar spectrum. The epilayers were grown in an elemental solid source molecular beam epitaxy system with a rf plasma nitrogen source. The Sb and N compositions of the nearly lattice-matched layers are 6.8% and 2.6%, respectively, as determined by high resolution x-ray diffraction and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis. The high crystalline quality of the layers is attested by the presence of well resolved Pendellosung fringes on a triple axis (004) x-ray scan and dynamical truncation rods observed on the corresponding (004) reciprocal space map. The effects of in situ annealing in As ambient and ex situ annealing in N ambient on the low temperature photoluminescence (PL) characteristics are discussed. Ex situ (in situ) annealed samples display an 8K PL peak energy of 1eV with a full width at half maximum of 18meV (26meV). Raman spectral analysis, the temperature dependence of the PL peak energy, and SIMS profiles indicate that outdiffusions of N and As are suppressed in the in situ annealed samples and improvement in Ga–N bonding is observed, leading to higher PL intensities in these samples. In addition, indirect evidence of atomic scale ordering has been observed. The stability of these structures appears to be dependent on the annealing conditions.