Low temperature heteroepitaxy of InP on Si(111) substrates treated with buffered HF solution

Abstract

Low temperature metalorganic vapor phase heteroepitaxy of InP on Si(111) using buffered HF solutions for preparation of the Si surface is reported. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed no presence of chemisorbed contaminants on the substrate surface after surface preparation. We used high-resolution x-ray diffraction to characterize the quality of the InP epilayers. Optimum InP layers were obtained when the surface was treated with a buffered HF solution with a pH of 6.2, which produces the minimum substrate surface roughness, as reported in the literature. The InP layers grown on normally oriented Si(111) show the presence of large antiphase domains.

High vertical yield InP nanowire growth on Si(111) using a thin buffer layer

“…Two-step layer growth is used as an effective way to achieve smooth and high crystal quality III-V layers on lattice mismatched Si [11,32,34]. The growth mechanism on highly lattice mismatched substrates usually results in formation of islands.…”

“…III-V layer growth on Si is complicated by lattice mismatch, thermal expansion coefficient mismatch and polarity related issues [11][12][13]. In the case of nanowires, the lattice mismatch and thermal expansion coefficient mismatch problems are partially eliminated for smaller particle sizes due to the possibility of strain relaxation at the bottom of the nanowires [14,15].…”

“…Due to the 8% lattice mismatch between InP and Si, the epitaxial growth tends to be islanding in nature [31]. Hence a two-step approach is commonly adopted [11,32]. Here, the first (nucleation) layer is expected to cover the Si substrate as much as possible and a higher quality, smooth second layer, suitable for the nanowire growth is grown on the first layer.…”

A Strategic Review on Growth of InP on Silicon Substrate for Applications in High Frequency RF Devices

“…A potential solution for direct epitaxy for high quality InP on Si substrate was reported by Y.Ababou et alIn this method the substrate roughness was minimized by using buffered HF solution [6].…”

Effects of Bi Irradiation on the Molecular Beam Epitaxy Growth of GaSb on Ge (111) Vicinal Substrates

“…On the other hand, the use of the (111) substrates of Si or Ge for the heteroepitaxial growths is expected to have some advantages in comparison with the use of the (001) substrates. First, there is a possibility to avoid antiphase domains by the use of the (111) substrates . Second, as (111) surface has a lower surface energy than (001) surface, the use of the (111) substrates is expected to be more beneficial to the layer‐by‐layer growth .…”