Effects of rapid thermal annealing on optical quality of GaNP alloys

Significant improvements in radiative efficiency of GaNP epilayers grown on GaP substrates by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are achieved by post-growth rapid thermal annealing (RTA). From temperature-dependent CW and timeresolved photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies combined with PL excitation measurements, the observed improvements are attributed to annealing out of competing nonradiative centres. This conclusion is supported by the following experimental evidence: reduced thermal quenching of the PL intensity resulting in a substantial (up to 18 times) increase at room temperature (RT) after RTA, and simultaneous improvements in carrier lifetime at RT deduced from time-resolved PL measurements.