Sub-50 cm/s surface recombination velocity in InGaAsP/InP ridges

The III–V InP/InGaAsP/InGaAs material family is important for photonic devices due to its optical emission and absorption in the 1.55 and 1.3 μm telecommunication bands for optical interconnects. However, InGaAsP/InGaAs generally suffer from relatively high surface recombination velocity—compared to Si [Das et al., in 2020 47th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) (IEEE, Calgary, AB, 2020), pp. 1167–1170] and InP [Joyce et al., Nano Lett. 12, 5325–5330 (2012)], which reduces the efficiency and can increase the noise in nanophotonic devices. Here, we demonstrate an efficient method to passivate the surface using a combination of sulfur-saturated ammonium sulfide and atomic layer deposition. After annealing, the surface passivation led to a surface recombination velocity as low as 45 cm/s, corresponding to a >180× increase in the photoluminesence of a nanoscale light-emitting device with 200 nm width.