Abstract
Bismuth, a group-V element, has long been neglected in the III-V semiconductor family. However, dilute bismides started to attract great attention since the early 2000s, due to the giant bandgap reduction and the strong increase of the spin-orbit splitting energy introduced by the incorporation of Bismuth. Among the III-V-Bi alloys, GaSbBi is particularly interesting but has only been sporadically studied, mainly due to the very challenging incorporation of Bismuth. Bismuth requires indeed very unusual growth conditions to be incorporated into III-V materials. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate the molecular beam epitaxy and the properties of GaSbBi alloys and heterostructures.A careful study of the influence of the different growth parameters on the Bismuth incorporation was first carried out. These investigations lead to the fabrication of high quality GaSbBi layers and to the incorporation of 14% Bismuth, the highest content reached in GaSb so far. A bandgap reduction of 28 meV/%Bismuth was observed. GaSbBi/GaSb multi quantum-wells structures with various thicknesses and compositions were then fabricated and exhibited photoluminescence emission up to 3.5 µm at room-temperature. The first GaSbBi-based laser diode was also fabricated, demonstrating continuous wave operation at 80 K and a room-temperature emission close to 2.7 µm under pulsed excitation. Finally, the growth of another dilute bismide alloy, GaInSbBi, was investigated. The influence of the Indium atoms on the incorporation of Bismuth was particularly studied together with the properties of GaInSbBi/GaSb multi quantum-wells structures.