Electrical properties of ytterbium-doped InP grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

A study has been carried out on the electrical properties of ytterbium-doped InP grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition for the purpose of clarifying the electrical behavior of ytterbium impurities in InP. The epilayers were characterized by Hall effect measurements and by deep level transient spectroscopy. The results strongly suggest that ytterbium introduces an acceptor-like level 0.03±0.01 eV below the conduction band which is related to isolated ytterbium atoms or single ytterbium atoms complexed with native defects. No signs of precipitation or clustering of ytterbium are observed for concentrations below 1018 cm−3 . Contrary to previous hypotheses, no evidence has been found for the existence of an ytterbium-related acceptor level in the lower half of the band gap.