De-hydrogenation studies of carbon-doped In0.53Ga0.47As grown by gas-source MBE and their applications to InP/In0.53Ga0.47As HBTs

We report on studies of the de-hydrogenation process by rapid thermal annealing of carbon-doped In0.53Ga0.47As, grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy (GSMBE). The main purpose is to understand the mechanism of the de-hydrogenation process in carbon-doped In0.53Ga0.47As and find an in-situ solution to remove the hydrogen during the epitaxial growth to improve the performance of InP/InGaAs HBTs. We examine the robs of the three mechanisms involved in the de-hydrogenation process: dissociation from the binding site; diffusion in the host material; and dissociation from the material surface. We find that diffusion is the dominant rate limiting mechanism. Based on the above ex situ de-hydrogenation studies, an InP/In0.53Ga0.47As HBT was grown by GSMBE in which an in situ annealing without arsine flow was performed after finishing the base growth. The gain reduction and significant improvement of transistor performance demonstrate the effectiveness of the in-situ annealing process at removing hydrogen.