Growth and characterization of GaAs p-n junctions obtained by the CSVT technique using atomic hydrogen

The uses of atomic hydrogen to obtain semiconductor materials has increased significantly during the last decade. First, the passivating effects of en ergy levels, borders of grain, and interfaces were observed. Then we observ ed and took advantage of the capacity that atomic hydrogen has to form elem entary volatile compounds to subsequently carry out an "in situ" etch. Sinc e 1994 [1], our research group has taken advantage of this last modality to recover volatile compounds, making an inverse chemical reaction and obtain ing epitaxial growths by means of the close space vapor transport technique (CSVT). The results, obtained by low temperature photoluminescence and Hal l effect measurements, show that it is possible to obtain GaAs films with p -type conductivity [2]. The optic and electric characteristics were suitabl e in order to manufactures semiconductor devices. For the realization of th e p-n junction diodes, we used n-type GaAs (tellurium doped); we grew p-typ e GaAs films (zinc doped) and we showed that it is possible to obtain light emitting diodes whose emission is on the edge. Our work showed the I-V cha racteristic curves at room temperature and continuous regime. The saturatio n current under forward bias was obtained on the order of 10(-11) Amp. Phot ographs are shown of the radiation patterns in the near field of the p-n ju nctions; some regions with non homogeneous light are related to the presenc e of regions with different electric properties.