Understanding III-V/Si Heteroepitaxy: Experiments and Theory
Résumé
Co-integration of Group III-V and group IV semiconductors through heterogeneous epitaxy is of great interest for integrated photonics and solar devices. In the 80’s, the pioneering works of H. Kroemer [1] allowed the identification of the main issues associated to III-V/Si epitaxial growth, but recent experimental works revealed contradictions with the previous description [2]. Here, we use advanced growth and microscopy tools, as well as theoretical Density Functional Theory calculations to highlight the contributions of surfaces and interfaces on the Volmer-Weber growth of III-V monodomain islands on Si, and explore their influence on the formation and propagation of antiphase boundaries [2-9]. Emphasis is given on the chemical mismatch at the III-V/Si interface, which has large consequences on charges sharing between the two materials. We then show experimentally that antiphase boundaries result from the coalescence of monodomain islands, and point out the central role of the miscut for breaking the surface symmetry [9-11]. Experimental demonstrations include GaP/Si, GaAs/Si, GaSb/Si, and InP/Si materials systems. Finally, we demonstrate how these findings can be used to control antiphase domains distributions, and give an experimental demonstration of a quasi-periodic 1D pattern of antiphase domains in a GaAs layer grown on a Si substrate [11].
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Acknowledgments: A part of this work was supported by the French program on “Investments for the future” (Equipex EXTRA, ANR11-EQPX-0016), the ANR-DFG FILTER project (ANR-20-CE92-0045), the ANR PIANIST (ANR-21-CE09-0020), and NUAGES (ANR-21-CE24-0006) projects. The authors acknowledge RENATECH (French Network of Major Technology Centers) and Nanorennes for technological support.