Extremely large refractive index of strained GaInNAs thin films

Author

Kitatani, T. ; Kondow, M. ; Shinoda, K. ; Yazawa, Y. ; Okai, M. ; Uomi, K.

Author_Institution

RWCP Opt. Interconnection, Hitachi Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

fYear

1998

fDate

11-15 May 1998

Firstpage

341

Lastpage

344

Abstract

The refractive index of-strained GaInNAs layers was investigated. By spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), changes in the optical constants of GaInNAs layers could be observed clearly, even though the layers were as thin as 6 nm and the nitrogen content was less than 1%. The refractive index of GaInNAs was found by ellipsometric analysis to increase in proportion to the nitrogen content taking the layer strain into account. The increase in the refractive index as the bandgap energy decreased was consistent with that observed in conventional III-V alloy semiconductors. The rate of increase relative to the bandgap shrinkage was, however, more than triple that in GaInAs. This may be due to the high density of states in the conduction band, which is unique to this type of material system that includes nitrogen atoms

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; electronic density of states; ellipsometry; energy gap; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; indium compounds; refractive index; GaInNAs; bandgap energy; bandgap shrinkage; density of states; nitrogen content; refractive index; spectroscopic ellipsometry; strained thin films; Ellipsometry; III-V semiconductor materials; Nitrogen; Optical films; Optical refraction; Photonic band gap; Refractive index; Spectroscopy; Transistors; Ultraviolet sources;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Indium Phosphide and Related Materials, 1998 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Tsukuba

ISSN

1092-8669

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4220-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICIPRM.1998.712472

Filename

712472