Comparative study of silicon nitride encapsulated and phosphine overpressure annealing on the interdiffusion of InxGa1−xAs-InxGa1−xAsyP1−y heterostructures

Abstract
The thermal interdiffusion on the group‐V sublattice in In x Ga1−x As‐In x Ga1−x As y P1−y quantum‐well structures has been characterized for samples annealed either with silicon nitride encapsulation or under a phosphine overpressure in two different metalorganic vapor‐phase‐epitaxy reactors under different phosphine overpressures. Under all conditions the interdiffusion lengths were found to be comparable, with only small effects due to the phosphine overpressure. This suggests that interdiffusion results obtained from silicon nitride capped samples can be applied to the interdiffusion that occurs during growth conditions.