Nanoscale Tailoring of the Polarization Properties of Dilute-Nitride Semiconductors via H-Assisted Strain Engineering

Abstract

Strain in heterostructures of materials with different lattice constants is unavoidable, but semiconductor physicists commonly make a virtue of necessity by strain engineering desired properties. Here the authors selectively passivate nitrogen dopants in GaAs to control the polarization angle of emitted light. Photonics applications aside, these results yield important insights into the interplay between strain anisotropy, valence-band mixing, and polarization properties in semiconductor heterostructures.