Photoluminescence of gallium arsenide encapsulated with aluminum nitride and silicon nitride

Abstract

Aluminum nitride and silicon nitride films were deposited on lightly doped n‐type GaAs : Si by low‐energy ion beam sputtering. Mechanically, the films were stable at annealing temperatures above 900 °C. In contrast to bare GaAs and previously reported encapsulation with Si₃N₄, where the 1.36‐eV line appears at relatively low annealing temperatures, there was no change in the photoluminescence spectrum until the samples were annealed at 800 °C in the case of aluminum nitride and 900 °C for silicon nitride.