Electron lifetime of heavily Be-doped In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As as a function of growth temperature and doping

The electron lifetime has been studied by a pump-probe optical transmission technique in heavily Be-doped InGaAs lattice-matched to InP as a function of the growth temperature (350/spl les/T/sub g//spl les/500/spl deg/C) and doping (2/spl times/10/sup 19//spl les/[Be]/spl les/2.6/spl times/10/sup 20/ cm/sup -3/). Reduction of the growth temperature to 350-400/spl deg/C induces the creation of electron recombining centers, efficient at the lowest doping studied here. But, for higher dopings, these defects have negligible effects compared to intrinsic Auger processes: the high diffusion of Be can thus be limited by growing heterostructures at reduced temperatures without compromising the electron lifetime. Sub-picosecond electron lifetimes have been measured at the highest doping.