Transmission and nanohardness studies of ternary GaAs1-xPx layers grown from the vapor phase by heteroepitaxy

Transmission measurements in the 0.5–25-μm spectral range are performed on thin (<350-μm) GaAsP layers grown by Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy (HVPE) on plain (100) GaAs substrates. Comparison with calculations taking into account multiple reflections reveals the role of the surface polishing quality on the clear transmission window and the wavelength dependent losses. A measurement of a 5-mm thick epitaxially grown GaP underlines more realistic spectral limitations on the application of orientation-patterned structures based on GaP and GaAsP for nonlinear optical frequency conversion. The mid-IR cut-off wavelength for the ternary GaAsP layers is almost independent of the composition and corresponds to the same two-phonon absorption limit observed in the binary GaP. Nanohardness and Young's modulus are measured for the same samples to evaluate their compositional dependence. The nanohardness dependence on the P-content obeys a second order polynomial law with a maximum around P = 0.8. Young's modulus depends linearly on the P-content, similar to the trend observed in other ternary systems, such as In_xGa_1−xAs and In_xGa_1-xP. The evolution of the band-gap, estimated from the transmission measurements, with the composition of the ternary compounds is linear in the range of 0–0.5 for the P content. In this same range the nanohardness can be considered to be linearly proportional to the band-gap.