Low-temperature spectrally resolved cathodoluminescence study of degradation in opto-electronic and microelectronic devices

This study reports on the microcharacterization of devices for optoelectron ic and for microelectronic applications using low temperature (T = 5 and 77 K) spectrally resolved cathodoluminescence (SCL). The mechanisms leading t o compositional inhomogeneities in the regrowth regions of InP-based butt-c oupled laser-waveguide devices for semiconducting optical amplifiers (SOAs) and for defect generation in the active and cladding layers of GaAs based pump lasers for erbium-doped optical fibre amplifiers (EDFAs) were studied. Beryllium outdiffusion in the base regions of GaAs-based heterojunction bi polar transistors (HBTs) after bias ageing was also studied. By comparing t he CL results with TEM, SIMS and HRXRD studies and with the existing litera ture, the observed growth and operation induced defects were attributed, re spectively, to the following mechanisms: recombination-enhanced defect glid e (REDG) in the pump lasers, recombination enhanced impurity diffusion (REI D) in the HBTs and electrostatically induced growth flux instabilities in t he butt-coupled laser-waveguide devices. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.