EFFECT OF RAPID THERMAL ANNEALING ON THE OPTICAL AND STRUCTURAL-PROPERTIES OF HIGHLY STRAINED INAS INP QUANTUM-WELL STRUCTURES/

The effect of rapid thermal annealing on the photoluminescence and x-r ay diffraction characteristics of a highly strained InAs/InP single qu antum well structure grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition has been investigated, Rapid thermal annealing has been fo und to significantly improve the crystalline quality of the strained I nAs/InP single quantum well structure. The luminescence intensity of t he quantum well at 8 K was increased by a factor of 4 after annealing at 700 degrees C for 5 s. The results obtained by high-resolution x-ra y diffractometry have demonstrated no noticeable change of the structu re in samples annealed at lower temperatures (below 750 degrees C). At higher temperatures, rapid thermal annealing deteriorated the x-ray d iffraction characteristics, and also reduced the quantum well luminesc ence efficiency. Furthermore, we found that the luminescence efficienc y of the deep radiative levels in the samples were also affected by ra pid thermal annealing. Copyright (C) 1996 Published by Elsevier Scienc e Ltd