Impurity and Stoichiometry Control in Atomic Layer Epitaxy

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe investigate the intrinsic point defects in epilayers grown by atomic layer epitaxy (ALE). Ga vacancies and antisite As atoms in the epilayers are detected by photoluminescence spectroscopy. This shows that the ALE epilayer was grown under As-rich conditions. We propose increasing the TMG flux to reduce the number of point defects. With this method, the number of point defects in ALE epilayers can be decreased to less than that in conventionally grown epilayers. Moreover, it is'found that these point defects are formed by the incomplete Ga coverage, not by the steric hindrance as previously suggested. The carbon concentration is decreased by one order of magnitude by using nitrogen instead of hydrogen as the carrier gas. As an application of this low defect density, we fabricated a GaAs/AlAs resonant tunneling diode and observed the negative resistance at room temperature.