Characterization of GaAs/AlGaAs laser mesas regrown with semi-insulating GaInP by scanning capacitance microscopy

In this work, cross-sectional scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) is used to investigate GaAs/AlGaAs buried heterostructure lasers. Laser mesas are buried with GaInP:Fe selectively regrown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy. It is shown that a complete 2D map of the electrical properties of device structure including, delineation of regrown interfaces and electrical nature of the regrown GaInP layer can be obtained. The behavior of the SCM signal with ac bias is used to verify the semi-insulating nature of the regrown layer at different locations of the sample. The measured SCM signal for the regrown GaInP:Fe layer is uniformly zero, indicating very low free carrier densities and confirming semi-insulating properties. This observation strongly suggests, in addition, uniform Fe incorporation in the regrown layers, close to and far away from the mesa. Finally, a nanoscale feature in the SCM contrast appearing as a bright (dark) spot in dC/dV mode (feedback bias mode) is observed at the mesa sidewall close to the interface between the regrown GaInP:Fe and the p-cladding layer. The origin of this contrast is discussed in terms of local band-bending effects and supported by 2D Poisson simulations of the device structure.