Growth, Microstructure, and Luminescent Properties of Direct-Bandgap InAlP on Relaxed InGaAs on GaAs Substrates

Direct-bandgap InAlP alloy has the potential to be an active material in nitride-free yellow-green and amber optoelectronics with applications in solid-state lighting, display devices, and multi-junction solar cells. We report on the growth of high-quality direct-bandgap InAlP on relaxed InGaAs graded buffers with low threading dislocation densities. Structural characterization reveals phase-separated microstructures in these films which have an impact on the luminescence spectrum. While similar to InGaP in many ways, the greater tendency for phase separation in InAlP leads to the simultaneous occurrence of compositional inhomogeneity and CuPt-B ordering. Mechanisms connecting these two structural parameters are presented as well as results on the effect of silicon and zinc dopants on homogenizing the microstructure. Spontaneous formation of tilted planes of phase-separated material, with alternating degrees of ordering, is observed when InAlP is grown on vicinal substrates. The photoluminescence peak-widths of these films are actually narrower than those grown on exact (001) substrates. We find that, despite phase-separation, ordered direct-bandgap InAlP is a suitable material for optoelectronics.