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Lifetime Assessment of In x Ga 1− x As n‐Type Hetero‐Epitaxial Layers
Author(s) -
Hsu P.-C. Brent,
Simoen Eddy,
Eneman Geert,
Merckling Clement,
Mols Yves,
Heyns Marc
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.202200127
Subject(s) - epitaxy , materials science , dislocation , carrier lifetime , diode , photoluminescence , doping , stack (abstract data type) , optoelectronics , recombination , electric field , analytical chemistry (journal) , layer (electronics) , silicon , chemistry , physics , nanotechnology , composite material , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , chromatography , computer science , gene , programming language
Herein, the carrier lifetime in ≈5 × 10 16 cm −3 n‐doped In x Ga 1− x As layers is studied by diode current–voltage analysis and by time‐resolved photoluminescence. Two sets of hetero‐epitaxial layers are grown on semi‐insulating InP or GaAs substrates. The first set corresponds with a constant In content p + n stack, while the second set has a fixed x = 0.53 for the n‐layer, while containing various extended defect densities by using a strain relaxed buffer with different x . This results in threading dislocation densities (TDDs) between ≈10 5 cm −2 and a few 10 9 cm −2 . It is shown that the overall trend of the recombination lifetime versus TDD can be described by a first‐order model considering a finite recombination lifetime value inside a dislocation core of 1 nm. For the generation lifetime, a strong electric‐field enhancement factor is found. Also, the residual strain in the n‐layer has an impact. Overall, the safe limit for TDD depends on the type of application and on the operation conditions (reverse diode bias).