SIMS measurements of oxygen impurities in AlGaInP semiconductor material and laser diodes

(AlyGa1-y)(0.52)In-0.48 P (y = 0.0, 0.2 and 0.7) was grown by MBE using eit her GaP or phosphine as the phosphorus source material. SIMS measurements r eveal that phosphide semiconductor material grown by using GaP contains sig nificantly more oxygen impurities compared to gas source material. A SIMS m easurement of a phosphide laser grown by gas source MBE shows low oxygen co ntamination in the quaternary regions of the device, but interestingly, a s ignificant oxygen spike occurs in the active region. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scie nce B.V. All rights reserved.