Monolithic integration of opto-electronic devices operating in the 1.0-1.7 μm wavelength regime with GaAs

A novel technique has been developed employing the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth technique which permits the growth of opto-electronic device-quality InxGa1-xAs material on GaAs substrates. The technique overcomes lattice-mismatches of, for instance, 2.5% for x = 0.35 (1.3 μm operation) and 3.4% for x = 0.48 (1.55 μm operation). Dislocation nucleation and propagation is controlled by the incorporation of carefully designed multistage strain-relief buffer systems which comprise composite structures involving InGaAs/GaAs strained-layer superlattices. Cross-sectional and planar TEM analyses indicate the buffered InxGa1-xAs epi-layers to contain low densities of dislocations in contrast to the heavily dislocated material obtained by growing high indium content InxGa1-xAs epi-layers directly on GaAs substrates. Some preliminary device fabrication work has been done which demonstrates the opto-electronic device-quality nature of this material and these results will be discussed in the presentation