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

Abstract

Stresses and strains in heterostructures have dominated semiconductor research during the last ten years. We review the theory and experimental work on stresses in III-V semiconductor heterostructures in this paper. First large-area lattice mismatched layers (InGaAs and InGaP layers grown on GaAs or InP substrates) and thermally strained layers (GaAs, GaP and InP layers grown directly on Si) are considered. The stresses in large-area epilayer-substrate structures are easy to model because substrate distortion can be neglected and strain in the epilayer is a simple biaxial tetragonal distortion. Calculated splitting of band edges, modification of bandgaps and shifts of Raman modes show good agreement with experiments. Edges of a stripe relax stress in the stripes and induce stress in the substrate. Since stresses in the stripe and the substrate are coupled, calculation of stresses in stripes and substrates is more involved. Recent finite element (FE) calculations of these stresses are discussed in detail and compared with the approximate analytical models and with luminescence and Raman measurements. FE calculations of stresses in buried quantum wires, stressor-induced quantum wires and quantum dots are also discussed. The results of these calculations are used to determine stability and luminescence of the quantum wires and dots and compared with the experimental results. Finally self-organized quantum dots consisting of islands formed during the 3D growth of InAs layers on GaAs are discussed. A possible explanation of the recent observation that they are formed in vertical columns embedded in GaAs is suggested.

Nanoepitaxy of GaAs on a Si(001) substrate using a round-hole nanopatterned SiO2mask

“…The red shift could be due to the tensile strain caused by the mismatch of the thermal expansion coefficient between GaAs and Si [26]. The tensile stress decreases the band gap energy and lifts the valence band degeneracy [7,[26][27][28]. The PL spectra indicate a red shift for the sample of GaAs on a planar Si(001) substrate.…”

“…Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. temperature at the main growth stage, called two-step growth, can reduce strain [6][7][8][9]. The strain can be reduced using a thin epilayer [5][6][7][8].…”

Thermal dependence of the properties of cubic boron nitride crystal

“…The effect of temperature is similar to the effect of tension pressure but it is thermal [84], while it directly affects the band gaps [85]. Due to the increase in temperature which leads to increase in distance, the orbitals overlap will be decreased and the repulsion will also decrease, and the energy difference between bonding and antibonding states will be decreased accordingly.…”

Epitaxial Designs for Maximizing Efficiency in Resonant Tunneling Diode Based Terahertz Emitters

“…We solve the recurrent equation (5) of M&B using standard material parameters [55], [56], assuming the InP substrate the unstrained lattice constant, and finally plot the critical thickness depending on the mole fraction x. According to this M&B model, 5.04 ML of InAs can be uniformly grown on an InP substrate before strain relaxation through the formation of misfit dislocations become a problem.…”