Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
We report a study of N incorporation in GaAs and InP by gas-source molecular beam epitaxy using a N radical beam source. For GaNAs grown at high temperatures, phase separation was observed, as evidenced from the formation of cubic GaN aside from GaNAs. By lowering the growth temperature, however, GaNAs alloys with N as high as 14.8% have been obtained without showing any phase separation. For InNP, no phase separation was observed in the temperature range studied (310 – 420 °C). Contrary to GaNAs, incorporating N in InP is very difficult, with only less than 1% N being achieved. Optical absorption measurement reveals strong red shift of bandgap energy with direct-bandgap absorption. However, no semimetallic region seems to exist for GaNAs and a composition-dependent bowing parameter has been observed.