Synthesis and characterization of GaPN/GaP heterostructures grown on silicon (001)

III-V compound semiconductor heterostructures grown on Si wafers are one of the promising materials in modern optoelectronics. The most promising candidate providing lattice matching with Si is III-phosphide-based alloys diluted with nitrogen. In this work, we study the effect of growth conditions on the structure and optical properties of GaP_1−xN_x/GaP/Si planar heterostructures synthesized by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. A series of samples with a maximum impurity nitrogen content as high as 5.05% was synthesized. The morphological, structural and optical properties of heterostructures are studied with scanning electron microscopy and optical spectroscopy. All of the samples demonstrate a broad photoluminescence (PL) response in the red wavelength region at room temperature (RT). The most efficient RT PL is obtained with the samples grown under a high nitrogen gas flow through a nitrogen plasma cell.