Influence of growth parameters and annealing on properties of MBE grown GaAsSbNSQWs

In this paper we report the growth of GaAsSbN/GaAs single quantum well (SQW) heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and their proper-ties. A systematic study has been carried out to determine the effect of growth conditions, such as the source shutter opening sequence and substrate temperature, on the structural and optical properties of the layers. The substrate temperatures in the range of 450-470 degrees C were found to be optimal. Simultaneous opening of the source shutters (SS) resulted in N incorporation almost independent of substrate temperature and Sb incorporation higher at lower substrate temperatures. The effects of ex-situ annealing in nitrogen ambient and in-situ annealing under As overpressure on the optical properties of the layers have also been investigated. A significant increase in photoluminescence (PL) intensity with reduced full width at half maxima (FWHM) in conjunction with a blue shift in the emission energy was observed on annealing the samples. In in-situ annealed samples, the PL line shapes were more symmetric and the temperature dependence of the PL peak energy indicated significant decrease in the exciton localization energy as exhibited by a less pronounced "S-shaped curve". The "inverted S-shaped curve" observed in the temperature dependence of PL FWHM is also discussed. 1.61 mu m emission with FWHM of 25 meV at 20K has been obtained in in-situ annealed GaAsSbN/GaAs SQW grown at 470 degrees C by SS.