Part III - Papers - Vapor-Phase Growth of GaAs1-xPx Room-Temperature Injection Lasers

The fabrication of p-n junctions in GaAsl-,P, alloys by a vapor-phase gowth technique has for the first tirne resulted in room-temperature injection lasers capable of operating over a broad range of wavelengths extending into the visible region of the spectrum. The shortest wavelength achieved to date is 6750A at room tetnperature. In addition, at 78°K the threshold current density values for these lasers are generally the lo~vest reported, and the emitted radiation extends to the lozc,est wavelength ever attained (6350A). With lasers fabricated from material containing 14 pct Gap, quanticm efficiencies of 26 pct and peak power outputs of 25 zu were obtained at room temperature. ALTHOUGH room-temperature operation of GaAs injection lasers has been well-documented,&apos;-5 the operation of GaAsl-,P, (x > 0) laser diodes has been restricted to relatively low temperatures.8-&apos;0 This has been previously attributed5, 7, 10-12 partially to the difficulty of preparing single-crystalline GaAsl-& alloys having a high degree of chemical homogeneity and purity. Also, with these materials it has been difficult to prepare high-quality, abrupt p-12 junctions by diffusion techniques; and, in turn, this has made it difficult to obtain optimum electrical properties for room-temperature operationL3 in the resulting laser diodes. As a result, GaAsl-,P, laser diodes have not been efficient enough to permit operation at room temperature. For example, using diffused structures, only a few diodes were obtained which could be operated even close to room temperature (255K)." Recently, a vapor-phase growth method of preparing epitaxial deposits of GaAsl - .P, alloys has been described,14 and the high-purity and homogeneity of these materials has been previously demonstrated. Of special significance, with this technique, n- or p -type doping can be initiated or discontinued at any time and at almost any rate during the crystal growth so that the donor and the acceptor concentrations can be easily controlled to obtain desired impurity profiles. This permits high-quality, abrupt p-TZ junctions to be vapor-phase grown entirely during the crystal growth process, so that diffusion or other p-n junction fabrication processes are unnecessary. After growth, the device does not have to be heated to elevated temperatures, which avoids the possible unwanted introduction and motion of both impurities and lattice defects. Using the vapor-phase growth method cited above, over 300 room-temperature injection lasers have been prepared from GaAsl-,P, alloys having compositions in the range of 0 5 x 5 0.41. These lasers have emitted cohe~ent radiation in the spectral range of 8350 to 6350A at 78°K or from 9000 to 6750A at room temperature. The threshold current densities of the best lasers are independent of the alloy composition over the range 0 < x < 0.2 and compare favorably with values for good GaAs lasers.&apos; MATERIAL PREPARATION Multilayer, epitaxial deposits of GaAsl-,P, alloys are prepared by a vapor-growth technique described elsewhere.14 With this technique, the individual layers which comprise the multilayer structure are prepared sequentially in the deposition apparatus without interrupting the crystal growth. The epitaxial layers are deposited on GaAs substrate surfaces oriented normal to the ( 100) direction. The substrate wafers employed in this study were usually doped with tellurium to an electron concentration of approximately 2 x 10" per cu cm. To avoid strains, the first 10 to 15 p of the deposited material is uniformly graded from pure GaAs to the specific GaAsl- ,P, alloy composition of interest. The GaAsl - ,P, alloy growth is then continued to form a layer of constant composition having a thickness in the range of 25 to 75 p. Both the graded region and the layer of constant composition are doped with selenium to an electron concentration of about 2 x 10" per cu cm. The p region of the diode is then incorporated in the crystal by abruptly changing the dopant concentrations in the vapor phase to facilitate doping with zinc. This layer has a hole concentration of approximately 3 X 1019 per cu cm and typically is 50 p thick. DEVICE FABRICATION In general, the GaAs substrate and the region of graded composition are removed. Ohmic contacts are made to the n-type side by tin evaporation and to the p-type side by an electrodeless nickel deposition. This is followed by an electrodeless deposition of gold on both sides. The crystal wafer is then cleaved along (110) planes and sawed into rectangular parallelepipeds. Typical dimensions are 100 by 300 for the junction area and 100 µ for the diode height. The diodes are either soldered to a copper stud or pressure-mounted in a copper clip. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Approximately 400 laser diodes having compositions in the range of 0.41 have been prepared by the method described above. Each laser was routinely tested at liquid-nitrogen temperature. The lasers were operated with l-psec current pulses at a repetition rate of 60 pulses per sec. The parameters of greatest practical interest are the photon energy or wavelength of the laser output and the threshold current density. Fig. 1 shows the variation of photon energy with alloy composition at 78°K. The composition was determined from the lattice constant of the material obtained by X-ray back-reflection measurements. Although there