Hydrogenation of GaAs and Application to Device processing

Abstract

ABSTRACTExposure of GaAs and AlGaAs to a hydrogen plasma has been shown to result in a significant change in the electrical and optical properties. The changes are related to the electrical deactivation of the deep and shallow impurities by hydrogenation. Spectroscopic and electrical measurements have shown that Si donors and C acceptors in high purity GaAs can be passivated by hydrogenation. Hydrogenation of p-type GaAs and AlGaAs has resulted in highly resistive material. SiO2 was found to be a suitable mask for the hydrogenation process. Single and multiple stripe geometry lasers have been fabricated by properly masking the laser structure. The lasers produced using the hydrogenation process have low threshold currents and are capable of cw room temperature operation.