Atmospheric pressure metal-organic vapour phase epitaxial growth of InAs/GaSb strained layer superlattices
- Authors: Miya, Senzo Simo
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Gallium arsenide semiconductors , Organometallic compounds , Compound semiconductors , Metal organic chemical vapor deposition , Superlattices as materials , Epitaxy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:10557 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020866
- Description: The importance of infrared (IR) technology (for detection in the 3-5 μm and 8-14 μm atmospheric windows) has spread from military applications to civilian applications since World War II. The commercial IR detector market in these wavelength ranges is dominated by mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) alloys. The use of these alloys has, however, been faced with technological difficulties. One of the materials that have been tipped to be suitable to replace MCT is InAs/InxGa1-xSb strained layer superlattices (SLS’s). Atmospheric pressure metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) has been used to grow InAs/GaSb strained layer superlattices (SLS’s) at 510 °C in this study. This is a starting point towards the development of MOVPE InAs/InxGa1-xSb SLS’s using the same system. Before the SLS’s could be attempted, the growth parameters for GaSb were optimised. Growth parameters for InAs were taken from reports on previous studies conducted using the same reactor. Initially, trimethylgallium, a source that has been used extensively in the same growth system for the growth of GaSb and InxGa1-xSb was intended to be used for gallium species. The high growth rates yielded by this source were too large for the growth of SLS structures, however. Thus, triethylgallium (rarely used for atmospheric pressure MOVPE) was utilized. GaSb layers (between 1 and 2 μm thick) were grown at two different temperatures (550 °C and 510 °C) with a varying V/III ratio. A V/III ratio of 1.5 was found to be optimal at 550 °C. However, the low incorporation efficiency of indium into GaSb at this temperature was inadequate to obtain InxGa1-xSb with an indium mole fraction (x) of around 0.3, which had previously been reported to be optimal for the performance of InAs/InxGa1-xSb SLS’s, due to the maximum splitting of the valence mini bands for this composition. The growth temperature was thus lowered to 510 °C. This resulted in an increase in the optimum V/III ratio to 1.75 for GaSb and yielded much higher incorporation efficiencies of indium in InxGa1-xSb. However, this lower growth temperature also produced poorer surface morphologies for both the binary and ternary layers, due to the reduced surface diffusion of the adsorbed species. An interface control study during the growth of InAs/GaSb SLS’s was subsequently conducted, by investigating the influence of different gas switching sequences on the interface type and quality. It was noted that the growth of SLS’s without any growth interruptions at the interfaces leads to tensile strained SLS’s (GaAs-like interfaces) with a rather large lattice mismatch. A 5 second flow of TMSb over the InAs surface and a flow of H2 over GaSb surface yielded compressively strained SLS’s. Flowing TMIn for 1 second and following by a flow of TMSb for 4 seconds over the GaSb surface, while flowing H2 for 5 seconds over the InAs surface, resulted in SLS’s with GaAs-like interfacial layers and a reduced lattice mismatch. Temperature gradients across the surface of the susceptor led to SLS’s with different structural quality. High resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD) was used to determine the thicknesses as well as the type of interfacial layers. The physical parameters of the SLS’s obtained from simulating the HRXRD spectra were comparable to the parameters obtained from cross sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) images. The thicknesses of the layers and the interface type played a major role in determining the cut-off wavelength of the SLS’s.
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- Date Issued: 2013
Towards the development of InAs/GaInSb strained-layer superlattices for infrared detection
- Authors: Botha, Lindsay
- Date: 2008
- Subjects: Gallium arsenide semiconductors , Indium alloys , Compound semiconductors , Organometallic compounds , Infrared detectors , Infrared technology , Superlattices as materials
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:10526 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/713 , Gallium arsenide semiconductors , Indium alloys , Compound semiconductors , Organometallic compounds , Infrared detectors , Infrared technology , Superlattices as materials
- Description: This study focuses on the development of InAs/GaInSb strained-layer superlattice structures by metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD), and deals with two aspects of the development of InAs/GaInSb SLS’s by MOCVD viz. the deposition of nano-scale (~100 Å) GaInSb layers, and the electrical characterization of unstrained InAs. The first part of this work aims to study the MOCVD growth of GaInSb layers in terms of deposition rate and indium incorporation on the nano-scale. This task is approached by first optimizing the growth of relatively thick (~2 μm) epitaxial films, and then assuming similar growth parameters during nano-scale deposition. The GaInSb layers were grown as part of GaInSb/GaSb quantum well (QW) structures. By using this approach, the GaInSb QW’s (~100 Å) could be characterized with the use of photoluminescence spectroscopy, which, when used in conjunction with transmission electron microscopy and/or X-ray diffractomery, proves useful in the analysis of such small scale deposition. It is shown that the growth rate of GaInSb on the nano-scale approaches the nominal growth rates determined from thick (~2 μm) GaInSb calibration layers. The In incorporation efficiency in nano-layers, however, was markedly lower than what was predicted by the GaInSb calibration layers. This reduction in indium incorporation could be the result of the effects of strain on In incorporation. The choice of substrate orientation for QW deposition was also studied. QW structures were grown simultaneously on both (100) and 2°off (100) GaSb(Te) substrates, and it is shown that growth on non-vicinal substrates is more conducive to the deposition of high quality QW structures. The second part of this study focuses on the electrical characterization of unstrained InAs. It is long known that conventional Hall measurements cannot be used to accurately characterize InAs epitaxial layers, as a result of parallel conduction resulting from surface and/or interface effects. This study looks at extracting the surface and bulk electrical properties of n-type InAs thin films directly from variable magnetic field Hall measurements. For p-type InAs, the situation is complicated by the relatively large electron to hole mobility ratio of InAs which tends to conceal the p-type nature of InAs thin films from Hall measurements. Here, this effect is illustrated by way of theoretical simulation of Hall data.
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- Date Issued: 2008