A novel technique for the direct determination of carrier diffusion lengths in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures using cathodoluminescence

Author

Sercel, P.C. ; Zarem, H.A. ; Lebens, J.A. ; Eng, L.E. ; Yariv, A. ; Vahala, K.J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Appl. Phys., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

fYear

1989

fDate

3-6 Dec. 1989

Firstpage

285

Lastpage

288

Abstract

A novel technique for determining carrier diffusion lengths in direct gap semiconductors by cathodoluminescence measurement is presented. Ambipolar diffusion lengths are determined for GaAs quantum-well material, bulk GaAs, and Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As with x up to 0.38. A large increase in the diffusion length is found as x approaches 0.38 and is attributed to an order-of-magnitude increase in lifetime.<>

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; carrier lifetime; gallium arsenide; luminescence of solids; semiconductor junctions; Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As; GaAs quantum-well material; GaAs-AlGaAs heterostructures; ambipolar diffusion lengths; bulk GaAs; cathodoluminescence; direct determination of carrier diffusion lengths; direct gap semiconductors; novel technique; order-of-magnitude increase in lifetime; semiconductors; Aluminum; Electron beams; Gallium arsenide; HEMTs; Length measurement; Luminescence; Optical fibers; Optical materials; Physics; Scanning electron microscopy;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electron Devices Meeting, 1989. IEDM '89. Technical Digest., International

Conference_Location

Washington, DC, USA

ISSN

0163-1918

Print_ISBN

0-7803-0817-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEDM.1989.74280

Filename

74280