Controlling the nitrogen composition of InGaAsN quantum wells grown by MOVPE

Dilute-nitride material has attracted a substantial amount of attention due to its applicability in optical communications. However, controlling the emission wavelength of the InGaAsN quantum well still remains as an issue waiting to be resolved due to its difficulty of controlling both the well thickness and nitrogen content. In this article, the co-pyrolysis effect of TEGa and DMHy which leads to the strong suppression of growth rate is investigated. This phenomenon becomes more pronounced as the luminescence wavelength is red-shifted as a result of increasing the DMHy/group V ratio. Based on our experimental result, we suggest that the nitrogen content of InGaAsN can be adjusted only by tuning the TBAs/group III ratio while keeping the DMHy flow rate unchanged, and by doing so the InGaAsN growth rate is maintained accordingly. This method greatly eases the burden of controlling the nitrogen composition and the growth rate, which helps to optimize the InGaAsN metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE) parameters to a greater extent. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.