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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
The use of trimethylamine alane (TMAAl) as an alternative to trimethylaluminum (TMAl) for low-pressure metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) of AlGaAs thin films as well as complex optoelectronic device structures has been studied in detail. AlGaAs layers were grown in a horizontal reaction chamber at 20–110 mbar with growth temperatures in the range 650°C≤TG≤750°C. Wafer thickness uniformity is strongly dependent on growth pressure, and is acceptable only for the highest linear flow velocities. The 12K photoluminescence (PL) spectra of AlGaAs layers grown using TMAAl and TEGa exhibit uniformly intense and narrow bound-exciton emission throughout the growth temperature range investigated. To assess the viability of this new source for the low-pressure OMVPE growth of advanced optoelectronic devices, several optically-pumped vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) structures were grown using TMAAl extensively. Room temperature lasing at 850 nm was reproducibly obtained from the VCSEL structures, with a threshold pumping power comparable to similar structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy in our laboratories.