Epitaxial growth of lattice-matched InSb/CdTe heterostructures on the GaAs(111) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

We report the growth of InSb/CdTe hetero-epitaxial thin films on the GaAs (111)B substrate using molecular beam epitaxy. The use of (111) orientation enables the fast strain relaxation during the CdTe buffer layer growth, and major crystallographic defects are confined near the CdTe/GaAs interface. Owing to the lattice matching between InSb and CdTe, layer-by-layer 2D growth of InSb is observed from the initial growth stage. Both smooth surface morphology and low defect density of the as-grown InSb/CdTe heterostructures give rise to the enhancement of electron mobility when the InSb layer thickness is reduced below 30 nm as compared to the InSb/GaAs counterparts. The integration of InSb/CdTe highlights the advantage of lattice-matched epitaxial growth and provides a promising approach to design high-quality III–V/II–VI hybrid systems for high-performance device applications.

Moiré Pattern Formation in Epitaxial Growth on a Covalent Substrate: Sb on InSb(111)A

“…This difference could be attributed to either a different bond length between the substrate and Sb layers compared to the bond length between Sb layers or to the fact that STM does not show the actual topography of the surface but rather a mixture of topography and the local density of states (LDOS). The rightmost step with a height of 0.38 nm comes from the substrate, which can be identified from the obvious 2√3 × 2√3 reconstruction on top and also corresponds well to the known single-step height of InSb(111) Figure c shows the close-up of a 5 BL terrace with atomic resolution of the Sb lattice and an additional superimposed intensity modulation that can be attributed to the moiré pattern.…”

Highly Efficient Electric-Field Control of Giant Rashba Spin–Orbit Coupling in Lattice-Matched InSb/CdTe Heterostructures

“…semi-insulating GaAs(111)B substrate via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). 27 The use of the (111) crystal orientation can facilitate the fast strain relaxation and limit the dislocation formation during the initial CdTe nucleation stage. Subsequently, the obtained smooth CdTe buffer layer helps to promote the layer-by-layer growth of the single-crystalline InSb thin film, and the sharp InSb/CdTe heterointerface with well-ordered zinc-blende configuration and negligible crystallographic defects is confirmed by the high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HRSTEM) in Figure 1b.…”

“…To elucidate the aforementioned proposal, high-quality lattice-matched InSb/CdTe heterostructures are grown on the 3 in. semi-insulating GaAs(111)B substrate via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) . The use of the (111) crystal orientation can facilitate the fast strain relaxation and limit the dislocation formation during the initial CdTe nucleation stage.…”

Room‐Temperature Gate‐Tunable Nonreciprocal Charge Transport in Lattice‐Matched InSb/CdTe Heterostructures

“…semi-insulating GaAs(111)B wafer via molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). [22] Detailed growth information and sample characterizations are provided in Section S1 (Supporting Information). Figure 1b shows the cross-sectional high-angle annular darkfield (HAADF) profile of the as-grown sample, which confirms the absence of macroscopic threading dislocations in the examined region.…”