Proton implantation intermixing of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells

We have investigated proton implantation enhanced intermixing of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells for H⁺ doses ranging from 5×10 ¹³ to 1×10¹⁶ ions/cm². Implantation of 20 keV H⁺ followed by a high temperature rapid thermal anneal leads to enhanced diffusion of Al into the GaAs quantum well. Shifts of electron-heavy hole recombination energies due to compositional changes were observed using room temperature cathodoluminescence. Diffusion lengths of longer than 2 nm were calculated from energy shifts in a 5 nm well and were found to vary with both implanted dose and anneal time, as expected if the enhanced interdiffusion is caused by implantation introduced defects.