HIGH-REFLECTIVITY VISIBLE-WAVELENGTH SEMICONDUCTOR NATIVE-OXIDE BRAGG REFLECTORS GROWN BY METALORGANIC CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION

The growth and fabrication of high-quality vertical distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) utilizing layers of InAlP and the AlAs native oxide are reported. The III-V epitaxial structures employed in this work consist of alternating layers of InAlP and AlAs grown on GaAs substrates by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The DBR mirrors are formed by selective lateral oxidation of the AlAs layers (H2O vapor + N 2, 450°C) resulting in a layered structure of single-crystal InAlP and amorphous AlxOy. The oxidized vertical DBR mirrors having only 4.5 pairs exhibit high reflectivity in the 96%-99% range over a wide spectral region (Δλ∼200 nm). The structural and optical properties of these DBR mirrors have been measured and show that the reflectors are of high quality.© 1995 American Institute of Physics.