High quality InP grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

We report the first high quality InP grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The undoped InP layers are n type with residual impurity concentrations ∼5×1014–∼5×1015 cm−3. Fine structure attributed to polariton, neutral donor-exciton (D0–X), neutral donor–hole (D0−h), neutral acceptor–exciton (A0–X) transitions at the exciton edge and neutral donor-neutral accepton (D0–A0) transitions are clearly resolved in the low-temperature (5 K) photoluminescence spectra with a linewidth of <1 meV for D0–X as has been observed with high-purity InP layers grown by other methods. Elemental In and P (red phosphorus) were used as the primary molecular beam sources. The growth temperature has a very significant effect on the quality of the InP layers. The advanced design of the present MBE system employed for growing III-V compound semiconductors containing P from elemental red phosphorus is also described.