Solid source MBE for phosphide-based devices

Phosphorus-based materials are of great importance for many advanced optoelectronic and electronic devices. The most common techniques used for growing phosphorus containing epitaxial structures are MOCVD, GSMBE and CBE. All these growth methods use highly toxic hydrides as group-V sources. As environmental regulations, safety precautions and cost effectiveness are important issues in compound semiconductor business, there is an urge for a simpler and cheaper growth technique. Molecular beam epitaxy using solid sources for both phosphorus and arsenic (SSMBE) would be the simplest choice. However, the problematic physical properties of phosphorus have hampered the use of SSMBE until recently. The new valved cracker technology has overcome the problems associated with the use of solid phosphorus and SSMBE has matured to the level that state-of-the-art phosphorus-based materials and devices can be produced. In this paper, we review some of our results for SSMBE grown phosphide-based devices. These include strained-layer InGaAsP/InP SCH-MQW and strain-compensated InAsP/InGaP/InP MQW lasers emitting at 1.3 μm, strained-layer InGaAs/InGaAsP/GaInP QW lasers for 980 nm and 905 nm, 680 nm strained-layer GaInP/AlGaInP QW lasers, and InGaAs/InP HBTs