Liquid phase epitaxy of binary III–V nanocrystals in thin Si layers triggered by ion implantation and flash lamp annealing

Abstract

The integration of III–V compound semiconductors in Si is a crucial step towards faster and smaller devices in future technologies. In this work, we investigate the formation process of III–V compound semiconductor nanocrystals, namely, GaAs, GaSb, and InP, by ion implantation and sub-second flash lamp annealing in a SiO2/Si/SiO2 layer stack on Si grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Raman spectroscopy, Rutherford Backscattering spectrometry, and transmission electron microscopy were performed to identify the structural and optical properties of these structures. Raman spectra of the nanocomposites show typical phonon modes of the compound semiconductors. The formation process of the III–V compounds is found to be based on liquid phase epitaxy, and the model is extended to the case of an amorphous matrix without an epitaxial template from a Si substrate. It is shown that the particular segregation and diffusion coefficients of the implanted group-III and group-V ions in molten Si significantly determine the final appearance of the nanostructure and thus their suitability for potential applications.

A review of thermal processing in the subsecond range: semiconductors and beyond

“…Finally, the NC formation and growth mechanism as outlined in [193] should be briefly discussed. At first, the III-V NCs are usually formed by liquid phase crystallization, which is proved by a few experimental findings.…”

Laser restructuring and photoluminescence of glass-clad GaSb/Si-core optical fibres

“…Integration of III–V materials with silicon in thin film form (in addition to the more prevalent layered molecular beam epitaxy deposited structures) has been realized using ion implantation of silicon with Group III and Group V ions, followed by annealing 20–22 . The formation of III–V semiconductor nanocrystals in Si was reported, along with Raman and PL properties of the resultant composite films 21–24 . These studies demonstrate the feasibility of using thermally driven phase segregation of a compound semiconductor within a Group IV host, as anticipated by the existence of a pseudo-eutectic phase diagram 25 .…”

Synthesis, Morphological, and Electro-optical Characterizations of Metal/Semiconductor Nanowire Heterostructures

“… 13 Remarkably, the SiO 2 shell was found to persist during implantation with little intermixing at the interface to the Si core (see Supporting Information 1). Finally the phase separation and actual formation of NW heterostructures by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) 14 was induced by a 3 min preheating at 600 °C and subsequent 20 ms FLA, whereby the SiO 2 shell stabilized the molten core of the NWs. FLA was performed in Ar atmosphere with a flash energy of 54.2 J/cm 2 , resulting in peak sample temperatures of approximately 1470 K. 8 Within the cooling period after FLA, GaAs NCs formed with lengths varying from approximately 10 nm to 1 μm (cf.…”