Study Of Plasma Induced Quantum Well Intermixing Technique

Quantum well intermixing (QWI) is a promising technique for realizing multifunctional monolithic integrated components. Compared with other techniques as etch-and-regrowth and selective-area-epitaxy, QWI is more simple and effective to modify band-gap of quantum well structure and has been a hot research topic for long time.This thesis presents my contribution to plasma induced quantum well intermixing technique. The main innovations include:1. Implemented the Argon plasma induced QWI in standard InGaAsP compressively strained multiple quantum well structures and systematically studied the relations of ICP power, annealing temperature to the quantum well PL peak blue-shift, PL intensity.2. Proposed and investigated N2 plasma induced quantum well intermixing technique in InGaAsP multiple quantum well structure with and without a upper cladding layer for the first time, and obtained a 100nm blue-shift.3. Fabricated passive optical waveguides using Argon plasma induced quantum well intermixing in InGaAsP quantum well structure. The loss of the waveguide for 1545nm light drops from 22/cm to 2.16/cm.4. Fabricated a FP cavity laser with lasing wavelength of 1435nm using Argon plasma induced quantum well intermixing technique, and obtained a lower threshold current and a large output power.