Energy beam induced layer disordering (ebild)

Abstract

A novel energy beam induced layer disordering (EBILD) process is used to (a) locally melt in a scanned pattern regions of a solid state semiconductor heterostructure to produce an alloy of intermediate composition having different optical properties and/or (b) incorporating significantly large amounts of an impurity, present in an encapsulation surface layer of a solid state semiconductor heterostructure, into regions of the heterostructure via absorption of the impurity into liquid alloy melt to form regions having different optical and/or electrical properties and (c) thereafter optionally applying IID to enlarge or extend the disordered/as-grown boundaries of the initially melted region. As a direct write analogue to surface initiated impurity induced disordering (IID), EBILD is a flexible and viable process with high importance for continuous reproducibility and high yield in the fabrication of optoelectronic devices and thin film electronic and optoelectronic circuitry. Characterized in its simplest terms, the method of impurity incorporation contemplated by this invention provides such incorporation from a solid phase impurity source using an energy beam liquid phase technique to bring about absorption of the impurity with underlying constituents in a desired pattern to produce regions that may be disordered and possess different electrical properties or optical properties or both compared to regions not part of the scanned pattern.