We investigate two types of GaAs–GaAlAs interfaces in single quantum wells: (a) The abrupt interface produced by growth interruption during molecular-beam epitaxy; (b) the interdiffused interface produced by Ga+ ion implantation and annealing. The abrupt interfaces are shown to contain islands with sizes ≲1.5 μm. The ion implanted and interdiffused interfaces are characterized by an error function Al concentration profile. The Ga and Al interdiffusion is found to be markedly enhanced (up to ≊100 times at 900 °C) following the ion implantation and annealing. Quantum well boxes (QWB) are produced using the implantation enhanced interdiffusion (IEI) process. The new cathodoluminescence spectral lines observed in the analysis of QWB’s are attributed to three-dimensional carrier confinement in the potential wells induced by locally enhanced interdiffusion.
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Petroff et al. (1987) studied this question.