Strain-induced nitrogen incorporation in atomic layer epitaxy growth of InAsN/GaAs quantum wells using metal organic chemical vapor deposition

We report on the growth of high-quality high-indium-content (Ga)InAsN/GaAs quantum wells grown using low-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition. The growth was performed employing a strain-controlled atomic layer epitaxy technique. We verified experimentally that the strain enables the incorporation of nitrogen atoms during the atomic layer epitaxy growth of InAsN monolayers on GaAs. Photoluminescence and secondary ion mass spectroscopy measurements indicate that about 2.5% of the nitrogen was incorporated in the grown layers. Utilizing this strain-controlled atomic layer epitaxy technique, we designed and demonstrated highly strained InAsN/GaAs short-period superlattice structure suitable for applications in optical communication.