Strongly polarized photoluminescence and electroluminescence spectra have been obtained from strained GaxIn1−xP quantum wire heterostructures grown on (100) oriented, on-axis GaAs substrates by an in situ epitaxial technique. The phenomenon of strain-induced lateral layer ordering has been exploited in order to create lateral superlattices of GaxIn1−xP compositionally modulated in the [110] direction with a modulation period of 96 Å. The previous and subsequent growth of lattice-matched Ga0.51In0.49P ternary alloy epilayers results in the formation of compressively strained quantum wires. Transmission electron microscopy shows the wire cross sections to be ∼48×200 Å. These structures exhibit 77 K photoluminescence spectra at 1.79 eV that are strongly (96%) polarized parallel to the wires due to strain resulting from the lateral compositional modulation. The intensity of this emission depends critically on the polarization of the incident excitation. Electroluminescence spectra from multiple quantum wire light-emitting diodes display anisotropic polarization as well. The energies and optical anisotropies of these luminescence bands are consistent with a simple theoretical analysis.

Utilizing the strain-induced lateral-layer ordering (SILO) process, we have grown GaxIn1−xP multiple quantum wires (MQWR) on ternary GaAs0.66P0.34 substrates using a modified strain-balance mechanism. The resulting [110] lateral modulation occurred with a periodicity of ∼300 Å. Two dimensions of quantum confinement were obtained by surrounding the laterally confined GaxIn1−xP regions by layers of higher-energy-gap Al0.15Ga0.53In0.32P in the growth direction. A redshift in the photoluminescence emission was observed as the growth temperature was increased attributed to a stronger lateral composition modulation at the higher growth temperatures. Based on the modified strain-balance mechanism, light-emitting diodes with the GaxIn1−xP MQWR active region were fabricated using the SILO process. Strongly TE-polarized room-temperature electroluminescence from these devices was observed at 6470 Å.

We report the carrier dynamics in a spontaneously organized array of quantum wires grown by a novel technique that involves strain induced lateral ordering (SILO). Our cw–photoluminescence (PL) measurements reveal a very strong optical anisotropy associated with these wires, while the time-resolved PL measurements demonstrate a very interesting carrier dynamics due to localization of excitons and slow interwire scattering. The high quality and freedom from defects of the SILO multiple quantum wire array are nicely borne out by the long decay photoluminescence times (∼4 ns).

The interdiffusion of lateral composition modulated (GaP)2/(InP) 2 short-period superlattices (SPSs) is reported. The lateral composition modulation is achieved by the strain induced lateral layer ordering (SILO) process. A blueshift in the interband transition is observed by photoluminescence spectroscopy for capless and SiO 2 encapsulated annealed SPSs (800 °C, 5.5 h), while the intensity and wavelength of Si3N4 encapsulated annealed SPSs are only slightly perturbed. From transmission electron microscopy, capless annealed SPSs (800 °C, 5.5 h) retain their lateral composition modulation, however, the (001/2) satellite reflections disappear. For long anneal times (48 h), the interband transition corresponds to that of a In0.50Ga 0.50P alloy, suggesting the lateral composition modulation disappears. The observed lateral interdiffusion coefficient exceeds the vertical by a factor of ∼30, suggesting SPS interdiffusion is enhanced by native point defects.

We report current injected stimulated emission in AlGaInP/Ga0.65In0.35P heterostructures grown on commercially available GaAs0.6P0.4 substrates by gas source molecular-beam epitaxy. Room temperature photoluminescence of bulk GaInP grown on these substrates exhibited a full-width half-maximum of 36 meV, which is equal to the narrowest reported. At 77 K laser devices exhibited yellow stimulated emission near 5735 Å with a current density of 900A/cm2.