Arsenic Incorporation in InP Epilayers and Arsenide/InP Heterostructures Grown by Chemical Beam Epitaxy

ABSTRACTLow levels of arsenic contamination have been previously reported (∼0.01%) in CBE grown InP by different groups. The level of As incorporation in InP is usually enhanced when arsenide(InGaAs, InAsP) / InP heterostructures are grown.In this work, optimal growth conditions to minimize the non-intentional As contamination during the growth of these heterostructures are discussed. The red shift of band-edge excitons in the low temperature photoluminescence spectra as well as the analysis of high resolution X-ray diffraction patterns of InAsP/InP multi-quantum wells suggest the presence of As in InP barriers. This contamination is consistent with the ratio of As/P partial pressure (As residual in the chamber: 10-9-10-8 Torr) and the As/P incorporation rates. We have studied the influence of the growth temperature, the group-V/III flux ratio and the growth rate on the level of the As incorporation.