Strain variations in heteroepitaxial InP-on-Si grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Variations in the magnitude and sign of the strain in epitaxial InP directly on (001) Si are studied as a function of layer thickness using photoluminescence and x-ray diffraction techniques. The heteroepilayers were grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and showed good quality. We find that biaxial compressive strains are still present in InP layers with thickness up to 0.8 μm. The magnitudes of compressive strains are much larger than those expected from the equilibrium theory. With increasing thickness above 1 μm, the InP/Si layers suffer biaxial tensile strains as a result of differential thermal contraction during the cooling process after growth.

Stresses and strains in epilayers, stripes and quantum structures of III - V compound semiconductors

“…Good layers are obtained by using the so-called two-step method. In this method, first a thin buffer layer (also known as the first layer, thickness 30 nm to 0.2 µm) is grown at a low temperature, in the range 300 to 450 • C. The second layer, several microns thick, is grown on the buffer layer at higher temperatures (∼ 600 • C) generally used in homoepitaxy [130,136,142] (and references given in these papers). Lattice mismatch is approximately 4% for GaAs/Si, 0.4% for GaP/Si and 8% for InP/Si (see table 1).…”

“…The thickness of the layer at which transition from compression to tension takes place depends on the III-V semiconductor being grown and on the growth and annealing temperatures. For GaAs and InP it varies from 0.1 to 1 µm [9,42,130,136,142]. The work done on GaP is not so extensive; Yamamoto et al [142] have observed the transition at about 1 µm.…”

“…The PL spectrum of InP layers grown on Si has been studied by Wuu et al [136], Bimberg and coworkers [41,42,78] and Schlachetzki and coworkers [130] (and references given therein). Typical low-temperature PL spectra of InP/Si and InP/InP [42] are compared in figure 11.…”

“…they will not degrade by the generation of defects. Therefore extensive studies of stress and strain in latticemismatched III-V semiconductor epilayers [8,15,79,117,129], thermal strain in GaAs layers on Si [2,9,19,50,111,133,141,147], and in other III-V semiconductor layers on Si [41,42,78,108,112,130,136,142] have been made using the luminescence method. Etch pit, x-ray diffraction and topography studies have also been made [31,131,132].…”

Ion-assisted nucleation and growth of GaN on sapphire(0001)

“…The nucleation problem for GaN onto these materials is particularly severe because of a low incorporation efficiency of the metal-organic precursors typically used for growth. 5 Several approaches have previously been developed for suppressing three-dimensional growth, including lowtemperature buffer layers, [6][7][8] adsorbed foreign surface species ͑i.e., surfactants͒, 9,10 and low-energy ion-assisted growth. 11 Of these approaches, ion-assisted growth has received relatively little attention.…”