Characteristics of GaAs, AlGaAs, and InGaAs materials grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition using an on-demand hydride gas generator

We report results on the properties of GaAs, AlGaAs, and InGaAs materials grown using a new, on-demand hydride gas generator. Low pressure arsine gas is generated from an arsenic containing precursor (KAsH₂) by the controlled addition of water as a chemical activator. Both generated and bottled arsine are used to grow GaAs, AlGaAs, and InGaAs structures using atmospheric pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Using generated arsine, GaAs layers with background carrier concentrations of less than n=3×10 ¹³ cm^-3 were produced across a growth temperature range of 625-725°C using a V/III ratio of 30. InGaAs grown at 640°C with V/III=30 exhibits a background carrier concentration of n=2.5×10 ¹⁴ cm^-3 and mobility values of μ_{300 K}=11 350 cm²/V s and μ_{77 K}=71 200 cm²/V s. Photoluminescence measurements show highly resolved exciton spectra using either generated or bottled arsine with donor-bound exciton linewidths as narrow as 0.16 meV full width at half-maximum. Broad area GaAs/AlGaAs laser devices exhibit threshold current densities as low as 195 A/cm². The results obtained from bulk layer, quantum well structure, and broad area laser device characterization indicate that the quality of materials produced using generated arsine is equivalent or superior to that of materials produced using a high quality bottled arsine source.