Comparative Optical Studies of Cu, Mn, and C Impurities in Bulk Lec grown GaAs by Electron Beam Electroreflectance (EBER) and Photoluminescence (PL).

We have used 300K Electron Beam Electroreflectance (EBER) and 4. 2K photoluminescence (PL) to measure optical transitions in a series of LEC grown GaAs samples. The contaminants primarily consisted of the individual elements Cu, Mn, and C at levels above 10 16 /cm 3 . In unmodified control samples we find evidence of strong excitonic effects in the EBER lineshape even at 300K. For the contaminated samples, we find characteristic impurity transitions below the E 0 bandgap of the GaAs in both optical spectroscopies. However, in general the estimated impurity binding energies by EBER are not equivalent to established PL or DLTS values. Specifically, from EBER data we find below E 0 (1.424eV at 300K) a Cu peak near 49meV (1.375eV) and a C peak about 39meV (1.385eV) below E 0 . An EBER spectrum of the Cu-contaminated sample at 124K shows an asymmetric Cu impurity peak 47meV below E 0 . The C feature has been ascribed to either Si or Ge from corresponding PL energies by several earlier researchers. Two samples which had been implanted with Mn and annealed show a peak about 43meV below E 0 (1.381eV), and what appears to be a sharp, excitonic transition 10 to 16meV above the E 0 . Although these features may be due to Mn alone, the latter observation is suggestive of strain-induced valence band splitting. The correlated appearance of impurity peaks below the split-off E 0 +Δ 0 band may allow their assignment to either donors or acceptors in modulated reflectance studies [1,2]. None of the present cases showed corresponding transitions below E 0 +Δ 0 , suggesting that the observed impurity features arise only from acceptor transitions. Alternatively, the reduction of light penetration into the GaAs above the E 0 bandgap, reducing the sample interaction volume, may also explain this null observation.