Dopant incorporation in Te-doped Al0.9Ga0.1As0.06Sb0.94 grown by molecular
beam epitaxy
Saroj Kumar Patra1, Thanh-Nam Tran1, Lasse Vines2 and Bjørn-Ove Fimland1
1
Department of Electronics and Telecommunications,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
2
Department of Physics,
University of Oslo, NO-0316 Oslo, Norway
Quantum well diode laser characteristics are dependent on many parameters used during growth
of laser materials and fabrication of diode lasers. For example, composition, thickness, strain in the
quantum wells, quantum barriers and cladding layers affect the emission wavelength of the diode laser[1].
The threshold current density and resistance of the diode depend strongly on the doping levels in the
cladding layers and the thickness of the undoped core. Increase in resistance gives rise to heating, which
leads to increase in Auger loss [2] and thus reduction in laser output power. Therefore, the output power
of the laser depends on the doping in the cladding layers. For GaSb based III-V semiconductor lasers
emitting in the 2-5 μm range, Al0.9Ga0.1As0.06Sb0.94 is used as cladding layers. Te is used as n-type dopant
in the cladding layers. Optimization of the output power of the diode laser requires calibrations of
incorporated dopant density and corresponding carrier concentration in the cladding layers. There has,
however, been limited work reported on the Te dopant incorporation in AlGaAsSb [3, 4].
In this work, we present new data on carrier concentration versus Te dopant incorporation in
epitaxially grown Al0.9Ga0.1As0.06Sb0.94 layer. 2 μm thick Te-doped Al0.9Ga0.1As0.06Sb0.94 layers were grown
by molecular beam epitaxy on undoped GaAs (100) substrates. Incident Te dopant flux was varied by
using different GaTe source temperatures. A 100 nm thick undoped Al0.3Ga0.7As cap layer was grown on
the Al0.9Ga0.1As0.06Sb0.94 layer to reduce oxidation and errors in Hall measurements. Hall bar samples were
processed where the Au contact pads were annealed so as to diffuse through the undoped cap layer and
provide electrical contact to the doped layer. Carrier concentrations and mobilities of the doped
Al0.9Ga0.1As0.06Sb0.94 layers were obtained from room temperature Hall measurements, and information on
dopant incorporation was provided by secondary ion mass spectrometry depth profiling. The relation
between
incorporated
Te
dopant
density
and
corresponding
carrier
concentration
for
the
Al0.9Ga0.1As0.06Sb0.94 epitaxial layers will be presented. Optimized carrier concentration in the cladding
layers can lead to higher output power from the diode laser.
References
[1] E. Tournié, A.N. Baranov, Advances in Semiconductor Lasers, (2012) 183.
[2] R.G. Bedford, G. Triplett, D.H. Tomich, S.W. Koch, J. Moloney, J. Hader, J Appl Phys, 110 (2011)
073108-073106.
[3] H. Ehsani, N. Lewis, G.J. Nichols, L. Danielson, M.W. Dashiell, Z.A. Shellenbarger, C.A. Wang, J.
Crystal Growth, 291 (2006) 77-81.
[4] A.Z. Li, J.X. Wang, Y.L. Zheng, G.P. Ru, W.G. Bi, Z.X. Chen, N.C. Zhu, J. Crystal Growth, 127
(1993) 566-569.