Survey of defect-mediated recombination lifetimes in GaAs epilayers grown by different methods

In GaAs double-heterostructure potential wells at moderate injection levels, surface, radiative, and Auger recombination can all be suppressed. This leaves only Shockley–Read–Hall recombination which is mediated by defects in the crystallographic structure. In a survey of organometallic chemical vapor deposition (OMCVD), liquid phase epitaxy, and molecular beam epitaxy, we find that all the growth methods produce better than expected material quality with recombination lifetimes at room temperature as high as ∼2 μs observed in the best OMCVD material. If this lifetime were to be maintained during device processing, then material quality would not be the limiting factor in the implementation of certain novel device concepts.