INVESTIGATION OF IMPROVED REGROWN MATERIAL ON INP SURFACES ETCHED WITH METHANE HYDROGEN/ARGON/

In this work, we study the hydrogen introduced into InP during methane /hydrogen/argon reactive ion etching (RIE) to determine its effect on metalorganic chemical vapor deposition regrowth. We replace hydrogen w ith deuterium and confirm that deuterium is introduced into the substr ate during methane/deuterium/argon RIE with secondary ion mass spectro metry. During regrowth, the deuterium diffuses from deep within the ma terial and clusters at the regrowth interface, strongly indicating the presence of defects. To further understand the role of hydrogen, we i nvestigate the separate effects of ion damage and hydrogenation on sub sequent regrowth. We find that photoluminescence of regrown quantum we lls is greatly improved on argon ion damaged substrates which have bee n additionally exposed to hydrogen at -150 V for 3 min. These experime nts illustrate that hydrogen interacts with defects in InP, preventing their propagation during regrowth, and improving the photoluminescenc e quality of regrown quantum wells. (C) 1996 American Vacuum Society.