Native oxides on aluminum-bearing III-V semiconductors with applications to single-mode behavior, bistability and switching.

摘要

In this work, water vapor oxidation of Al-bearing III--V semiconductors is employed to form high quality native oxides. The native oxides described are formed at temperatures in the range of 400{dollar}spcirc{dollar}C to 450{dollar}spcirc{dollar}C. Some of the basic properties of the oxide are first described. The properties include the insulating and diffusion masking nature of the oxide as well as its low index of refraction.; Device-quality insulating oxides are demonstrated in the {dollar}rm Alsb{lcub}x{rcub}Gasb{lcub}1-x{rcub}{dollar}As-GaAs and {dollar}rm Alsb{lcub}y{rcub}Gasb{lcub}1-y{rcub}{dollar}As-GaAs-{dollar}rm Insb{lcub}x{rcub}Gasb{lcub}1-x{rcub}As{dollar} systems and are employed for current confinement in stripe-geometry gain guided laser diodes. The insulating properties and low refractive index (n {dollar}sim{dollar} 1.6) of AlGaAs native oxide are employed to fabricate single-longitudinal-mode planar native-oxide AlGaAs-GaAs quantum well heterostructure (QWH) laser diodes. This is done by patterning the stripes into a linear array. Data are also presented on the use of the native oxide to obtain switching and bistability with large hysteresis when fabricating laser diodes. Three-terminal bistable devices are examined. Finally, data are presented on the wavelength selectivity of the native oxide bistable devices.