MOVPE growth of dilute nitride III/V semiconductors using all liquid metalorganic precursors

Understanding the growth mechanisms of III/V semiconductors containing dilute amounts of N, like (GaIn)(NAs) is necessary as these materials are promising candidates for the active material in several optoelectronic devices, as lasers and solar cells. As one deals with metastable material systems, growth has to be conducted far away from thermodynamic equilibrium with several characteristics emanating from that. This paper summarizes our present understanding of the growth of dilute nitride materials by metal organic vapour phase epitaxy, using exclusively liquid metalorganic precursors. N-incorporation in III/V semiconductors for Ga(NAs) as a model system is predominantly determined by the competition of the group-V elements. Large dependencies of the N-incorporation on crystal composition as well as on strain are observed. Additionally, there are minor effects of gas-phase reactions of metalorganic precursors. The nitrogen uptake of the quaternary material system (GaIn)(NAs)/GaAs is shown to be dominated by In-induced desorption of the nitrogen from the surface, which results in a decrease of N-content, by increasing growth temperature or lowering growth rate.