Migration-enhanced epitaxy (MEE) growth of five-layer asymmetric coupled quantum well (FACQW) and its cross-sectional STM observation

The five-layer asymmetric coupled quantum well (FACQW) is a new potential-tailored quantum well that is promising for ultra-fast and ultra-low-voltage optical modulators and switches. FACQW samples were grown by the migration-enhanced epitaxy (MEE) and the conventional molecular beam epitaxy methods with steep and flat heterointerfaces in the monolayer accuracy. They were characterized with the cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). In the cross-sectional STM image, double-stripe structures with different contrast were observed. The stripe area corresponds to the FACQW (about View the MathML source wide), sandwiched with the AlGaAs barrier layers (View the MathML source wide). A dark line observed at the middle of the FACQW stripe area corresponds to the 3-monolayer-thick AlAs layer. The cross-sectional STM images of the high-quality heterointerface FACQW structures were successfully observed for the samples grown by the MEE method. More detailed studies of this kind of cross-sectional STM observations will be very effective to obtain the optimized growth conditions for fine and complicated ultra-thin structures.