CHARACTERIZATION OF ERBIUM-DOPED INGAAS EPILAYERS GROWN BY LPE

Erbium-doped InGaAs epilayers have been grown on InP(100) substrates b y Liquid Phase Epitaxy (LPE) and their properties have been characteri zed. In order to reduce the junction capacitance and thereby to improv e the frequency response of the PIN photodiodes to several gigabits pe r second, it is necessary to reduce the background carrier concentrati on of the intrinsic layer to the low 10(15) cm(-3) range. Due to the r esidual impurities of the source materials, it is extremely difficult to achieve this level of background carrier concentration using the co nventional LPE method. By adding 0.5 wt% of erbium in the growth melt for intrinsic layer in the LPE growth, a background carrier concentrat ion as low as 1X10(15) cm(-3) has been achieved.