LPE growth and characterization of InGaAsP/InP heterostructures: IR light-emitting diodes at 1.66 μm. Application to the remote monitoring of methane gas

Abstract Highly effective IR light-emitting diodes operating at the wavelength 1.66 μm and based on the buried heterostructure In 0.88 Ga 0.12 As 0.26 P 0.74 / In 0.72 Ga 0.28 As 0.62 P 0.38 /In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As/InP have been grown by liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) and characterized in detail by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM), electron diffraction (ED), X-ray diffraction (XRD), secondaryion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and electroluminescence measurements, The InGaAsP epilayers are found to be well lattice matched and of good structural quality. A tentative explanation is presented for the spinodal decomposition observed in InGaAsP alloys. A new type of selective CH4 gas sensor has been developed and fabricated on the basis of the IR light-emitting diode mentioned above. Especially designed for the remote control of CH 4 gas via fibre optics, an integrated optoelectronic readout scheme has been developed and tested. It is shown that the proposed type of sensor can be used for the quantitative remote control of CH 4 gas concentration (0.2-100%) via a fibre glass line up to a distance of 2 × 1 km.

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