Gas-source molecular beam epitaxy and characterization of InGaAs/InGaAsP quantum well structures on InP

In this paper, we report the effect of using a group-V residual source evacuation (RSE) time on the interfaces of InGaAs/InGaAsP quantum wells (QWs) grown by gas-source molecular beam epitaxy. High-resolution x-ray rocking curve and low-temperature photoluminescence (PL) were used to characterize the material quality. By optimizing the RSE time, a PL line width at 15K as narrow as 6.6 meV is observed from a 2 nm wide single QW, which is as good as or better than what has been reported for this material system. Very sharp and distinct satellite peaks as well as Pendellosung fringes are observed in the x-ray rocking curves of InxGa1-xAs/InxGa1-xAsyP1-y multiple QWs, indicating good crystalline quality, lateral uniformity, and vertical periodicity. Theoretical considerations of the PL linewidths of InxGa1-xAs/InxGa1-xAsyP1-y single QWs show that for QW structures grown with the optimized RSE time, the PL linewidth is mainly due to alloy scattering, whereas the contribution from interface roughness is small, indicating a good interface control.