V. D. Mattera

High-power cw vertical-cavity top surface-emitting GaAs quantum well lasers

We have devised a novel vertical‐cavity top surface‐emitting GaAs quantum well laser structure which operates at 0.84 μm. The laser combines peripheral current injection with efficient heat removal and uses only the epitaxially grown semiconductor layers for the output mirrors. The structure is obtained by a patterned deep H+ implantation and anneal cycle which maintains surface conductivity while burying a high resistance layer. Peripheral injection of current occurs from the metallized contact area into the nonimplanted nonmetallized emission window. For 10‐μm‐diam emitting windows, ∼4 mA thresholds with continuous‐wave (cw) room‐temperature output powers ≳1.5 mW are obtained. Larger diameter emitting windows have maximum cw output powers greater than 3 mW. These are the highest cw powers achieved to date in current injected vertical‐cavity surface‐emitting lasers.

Ga0.47In0.53As ultrahigh gain, high sensitivity photoconductors grown by chloride vapor‐phase epitaxy

We report highly sensitive planar, interdigitated Ga0.47In0.54As photoconductive detectors prepared by trichloride vapor‐phase epitaxy. The devices exhibit dc gains as high as 104 at 1.3 μm. For a bit rate of 500 Mbit/s a sensitivity of P=−35.4 dBm has been measured at 1.55 μm. With devices having unity gain quantum efficiencies of η=33% we obtain ηP=−40 dBm matching the highest sensitivity measured with a p‐i‐n photodetector at similar bit rates. The devices show responsivities in excess of 3000 A/W and detectivities ranging between 1012 and 1013 cm Hz1/2 W−1. These values represent the highest performance that has ever been achieved with photoconductors in this wavelength range.

High‐speed operation of InP metal‐insulator‐semiconductor field‐effect transistors grown by chloride vapor phase epitaxy

We report the millimeter‐wave performance of enhancement mode InP metal‐insulator‐semiconductor field‐effect transistors grown by chloride vapor phase epitaxy. For a gate length of 1 μm we have measured a current gain cutoff frequency of 29 GHz and an electron velocity of 2.5×107 cm/s, close to a theoretical current gain cutoff frequency of 40 GHz. This represents the fastest InP‐based field‐effect transistor ever demonstrated, and surpasses state‐of‐the‐art AlGaAs/GaAs modulation‐doped field‐effect transistors having similar gate length.

High-speed enhancement-mode InP MISFET's grown by chloride vapor-phase epitaxy

We report the properties of enhancement mode InP metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistors fabricated on semi-insulating InP substrates. The epitaxial layers of the device structure have been grown by chloride vapor phase epitaxy. Short-circuit current gain cut-off frequencies of 29 GHz were measured for 1 µm gate length devices, close to a theoretical value of 40 GHz. For devices having submicron gate lengths extrinsic transconductance values up to 300 mS/mm were measured. We have successfully utilized SiO2deposited by electron beam evaporation, and plasma enhanced CVD Si3N4as gate insulators, with a drain current drift of 30 percent within the first 50 hours of operation. The high-speed performance of the MISFETs represent to our knowledge the fastest InP-based field-effect transistor ever demonstrated, and surpasses that of the state-of-the-art AlGaAs/GaAs modulation doped field-effect transistors having similar gate length.

High‐speed enhancement mode InP metal‐insulator‐semiconductor field‐effect transistors exhibiting very high transconductance

We report the fabrication and performance of enhancement mode InP metal‐insulator‐semiconductor field‐effect transistors having transconductances as high as 200 mS/mm for a gate length of 1 μm. The epitaxial layers of the structure have been grown by chloride vapor phase epitaxy. Electron beam evaporated SiO2 has been utilized as gate insulator. The metal‐insulator‐semiconductor field‐effect transistors have low gate to source leakage currents (<125 nA) and saturation drift velocities as high as 3×107 cm/s. The transconductance value achieved in the present work is the highest ever measured on InP field‐effect transistors.

Planar avalanche photodiode with a low‐doped, reduced curvature junction

A planar InP/InGaAsP avalanche photodiode with a reduced junction curvature and low p‐type doping was fabricated by Be+ implantation through a photoelectrochemically etched InGaAs mask. A uniform gain as high as 15 was obtained without edge or surface breakdown. The device had a separated absorption and multiplication structure grown by vapor phase epitaxy. The n−‐InP top layer and guard ring conventionally used for planar devices were not needed. Two‐dimensional device modeling indicates that the reduced junction curvature and low doping can prevent edge breakdown and greatly suppress the surface field.

High‐speed InP/Ga0.47In0.53As superlattice avalanche photodiodes with very low background doping grown by continuous trichloride vapor‐phase epitaxy

Trichloride vapor‐phase epitaxy has been employed in a single chamber reactor to achieve the continuous (noninterrupted) growth of n−InP/n−In0.53Ga0.47As/InP superlattice structures for avalanche photodetector applications. Very low background doping has been achieved in both the InP (n≊1×1014 cm−3) and the superlattice layers (n=1×1015 cm−3). We report the details of the epitaxial crystal growth as well as analysis of the structures by secondary ion mass spectrometry and transmission electron microscopy. Avalanche photodiodes have been fabricated by Zn diffusion in the InP layer and mesa etching. The devices exhibit an intrinsic response time (full width at half maximum) of 66 ps at λ=1.5 μm which is the shortest so far achieved in superlattice photodetectors. Dark currents of 50 nA at unity gain, multiplication factors of 6, and breakdown voltages exceeding −120 V have been measured.

Monolithic InGaAs p‐i‐n InP metal‐insulator‐semiconductor field‐effect transistor receiver for long‐wavelength optical communications

We have fabricated a monolithically integrated p‐i‐n field‐effect transistor (FET) receiver consisting of an InGaAs/InP p‐i‐n detector and a high‐speed InP metal‐insulator‐semiconductor field‐effect transistor. The receiver sensitivity of the p‐i‐n FET is −18.2 dBm at a bit rate of 2.4 Gb/s and a wavelength of 1.55 μm.

Monolithically integrated InGaAs p-i-n InP-MISFET PINFET grown by chloride vapor phase epitaxy

Summary form only given. The authors report the monolithic integration of an InGaAs p-i-n detector with an InP metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MISFET) with f/sub T/=29 GHz for a 1- mu m gate length. The monolithically integrated p-i-n detectors are characterized by leakage currents of about 1 nA at a reverse bias of up to 10 V. The MISFETs had extrinsic g/sub m/ values of 200 mS/mm for a 1- mu m gate length. The gate-to-source leakage current of the MISFETs was below 100 nA up to a 1.8-V forward bias. Bit-error measurements at a wavelength of 1.55 mu m demonstrated PINFET receiver sensitivities of -34.1 and -25.4 dBm at 200 and 600 Mb/s, respectively. Preliminary measurements at 2 Gb/s show a receiver sensitivity of -20.0 dBm. >

Multigigahertz Logic Based on InP MISFETs Exhibiting Extremely High Transconductance

The search for high speed electronic devices has over the years focused on the utilization of high performance semiconducting materials. Here, we describe a novel, enhancement mode metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MISFET) fabricated on InP: The motivation for this work is provided by two reasons. First, InP has high peak and saturation velocities [l] compared with GaAs. Secondly, optical devices on the InGaAs/InP and InGaAsP/InP material systems are well developed, therefore the development of high-speed electronic devices on InP is of utmost importance for monolithic optoelectronic integration [2]. In addition, the growth of high purity InP by vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) is a well established technique [3]. To demonstrate the suitability of these MISFET’s for high-speed InP based digital circuits, we have fabricated inverters, basic building blocks of digital circuits. A propagation delay of 15 ps/stage has been measured for the inverter structure utilizing electro-optic sampling measurements, which represents, to our knowledge, the fastest FET prepared on an InP substrate.