Influence of growth parameters on the interface abruptness in CBE-grown InGaAs/InP QWs and SLs

A simple thermodynamic model for As and P incorporation at the CBE-grown InGaAs/InP and InP/InGaAs interfaces has been developed. This model agrees with the X-ray diffraction and the photoluminescence features experimentally obtained from high-quality single quantum wells (SQWs) and multi-quantum wells (MQWs). Our experimental results compare well with the best published data and clearly show that monolayer interfaces can be obtained in this material system only by chosing the proper growth interruption (GI) conditions and accepting a strong mismatch at each interface. This effect could become dramatic in superlattice structures in which the QW period is smaller than 5 nm and the resulting strain could lead to poor crystal quality and optical properties.