Effects of anodic oxide induced intermixing on the structural and optical properties of quantum wire structure grown on nonplanar GaAs substrate

Abstract

Effects of anodic oxide induced intermixing on the structural and optical properties of stacked GaAs quantum wire (QWR) structures grown on a sawtooth-type nonplanar GaAs substrate are investigated. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscope (XTEM) observation, temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging were used. Intermixing was achieved by pulsed anodic oxidation of the GaAs cap layer and subsequent rapid thermal annealing, was verified by XTEM analysis. A significant enhancement of QWR PL is observed accompanied by a notable blueshift of the sidewall quantum well (SQWL) PL due to the intermixing. Furthermore, an extended necking region is observed after the intermixing by spatially resolved CL. The temperature dependence of the PL intensities of both SQWL and QWR show maxima at approximately T ∼110 K indicating the role of the extended necking region in feeding carriers to SQWL and QWR. © 1996 American Institute of Physics.