Microprobe photoluminescence measurement on heteroepitaxial GaAs on Si grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Microprobe photoluminescence (PL) measurements at 77 K were used to study the effect of the GaAs layer thickness on optical quality and variations in strain in GaAs/Si containing microcracks. PL peak intensities increase with the increase in thickness of GaAs layers and the peak intensity for the 5.5 m GaAs layer was a factor of 20 higher than those for the 1–2 m GaAs layers. Spatial nonuniformities in strain in the vicinity of two microcracks reveal that stress was almost released at the intersection of two microcracks and is maximum half way between two microcracks.On leave from Semiconductor Materials Lab., Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)