Hydrogen Passivation of Interfacial Defects in MOCVD Grown GaAs/InP

The results of a low temperature (5K) photoluminescence study of hydrogenation of GaAs on InP grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition are presented. An emission band at ~1.42eV originating from the GaAs/InP interfacial region shows a 30 fold increase in intensity relative to the GaAs band edge emission after exposure to hydrogen plasma for 30 min at 250C. This improvement in intensity is attributed to hydrogen passivation of defects at the heterointerface caused by the large (~4%) lattice mismatch between GaAs and InP.