Heterostructure junction light emitting or responding or modulating

Abstract

Practice of this disclosure reduces the concentration of intrinsic defects heretofore grown into semiconducting materials. Thereby, the operational lifetime is increased of heterostructure junction light emitting or responding or modulating devices which are fabricated in accordance with principles of the disclosure. Illustratively, the operational lifetime of a heterostructure junction laser device thus fabricated is extended. This improvement in operational lifetime of the device is attained by constraining growth, e.g., liquid phase epitaxial growth, of the several layers of semiconducting materials which form such a device to proceed only upon unreconstructed surface layers. Illustratively, such an unreconstructed surface is any one of the set of (311) surfaces of a crystalline semiconductor having diamond, zinc-blende, or chalcopyrite structure. In particular, the operational lifetime of GaAlAs double heterostructure junction lasers is increased by constraining the liquid phase epitaxial growth to proceed only upon a (311B), i.e., an As terminated (311), surface so that respective interfaces between layers of the resultant devices are (311) crystal planes.