The effect of oxygen incorporation on interfacial recombination in GaInP/AlGaInP double heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy using a solid phosphorus valved cell

We have studied the effect of oxygen incorporation into AlGaInP on carrier recombination in GaInP/AlGaInP double heterostructures (DH) grown by MBE using a solid phosphorus valved cell. It was found that photoluminescence efficiency and interfacial recombination velocity of the DH were determined by residual oxygen concentration in the AlGaInP layers. The non-radiative recombination rate in AlGaInP was proportional to the oxygen concentration. We achieved AlGaInP with oxygen concentrations below 4 × 10 16 cm -3 (the detection limit of the SIMS measurement), nonetheless decay of the carriers in the DH was still governed by interfacial recombination. There was a discrepancy in interfacial recombination velocity as a function of oxygen concentration between samples previously grown by MOCVD and our samples currently grown by MBE.