Kinetic modeling of N incorporation in GaInNAs growth by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy

Abstract

We have studied the growth of GaInNAs by a plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). It was found that the N-radicals were incorporated into the epitaxial layer like dopant atoms. In the range of 400–500 °C, the growth temperature (Tg) mainly affected the crystal quality of GaInNAs rather than the N concentration. The N concentration dropped rapidly when Tg exceeded 500 °C. Considering N desorption alone is insufficient to account for the strong falloff of the N concentration with Tg over 500 °C, the effect of thermally-activated N surface segregation must be taken into account. The N concentration was independent of the arsenic pressure and the In concentration in GaInNAs layers, but inversely proportional to the growth rate. Based on the experimental results, a kinetic model including N desorption and surface segregation was developed to analyze quantitatively the N incorporation in MBE growth.

Band gap reduction in InNxSb1-x alloys: Optical absorption, k · P modeling, and density functional theory

“…S1 of supplementary material). These results are similar to those of Zhang et al who grew InNSb at between 250 and 350 C. 42 The temperature dependence of the N incorporation in InN x Sb 1-x has been modeled using the kinetic approach of Wood et al 43 and Pan et al, 44 which has previously been applied to N incorporation in GaNSb and GaInNSb alloys. 45,46 The curve shown in Fig.…”

Controlled nitrogen incorporation in GaNSb alloys

“…These data can be successfully reproduced using the kinetic modeling applied previously to N incorporation in GaAs by Pan et al 9 and before that to Mg doping of GaAs by Wood et al. 16 Under equilibrium growth conditions, the nitrogen content, x, is given by…”

“…These are very similar to the values of E d = 2.1 eV and τ s = 5 μs that were used for GaNAs. 9 From equation (1) and the model curves, each trend observed in the measured data can be understood from kinetic considerations as being due to the interplay between the incorporation rate and the desorption rate of N. The growth-temperature dependence of the N content at fixed growth rate in figure 2 exhibits a maximum N content plateau region at low temperatures of below ∼325 • C because, at these temperatures and all but the lowest growth rates, the desorption of N is negligible and so the N content is limited by the N supply. At higher temperatures, the desorption of N becomes significant, resulting in the rapid fall off of N content with increasing temperature that is observed in figure 2 above 350 • C.…”

Long wavelength bulk GaInNAs p−i−n photodiodes lattice matched to GaAs

“…However, the difficulty of incorporating significant amounts of nitrogen into Ga 1−x In x N y As 1−y is usually overcome by using a low growth temperature, [11][12][13] which can adversely affect the crystal quality. Therefore, an increasing nitrogen content is often linked to degradation in the optical and electrical properties of Ga 1−x In x N y As 1−y as indicated by reduced photoluminescence intensity 14,15 and a reduced open-circuit voltage for photovoltaic cells.…”