Direct observation of recombination-enhanced dislocation glide in heteroepitaxial GaAs on silicon

Callahan, Patrick G.; Haidet, Brian B.; Jung, Daehwan; Seward, Gareth; Mukherjee, Kunal

doi:10.1103/physrevmaterials.2.081601

Cited by 36 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…covalent compound GaAs also becomes more plastic [7] through the recombination of electron-hole pairs which are generated with the injected electrons by scanning electron microscopy. This suggested that the excited carriers play an opposite role in GaAs compared to ZnS.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Light irradiation induced brittle-to-ductile and ductile-to-brittle transition in inorganic semiconductors

Wang

Goddard

2019

Phys. Rev. B

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The intrinsic brittleness of inorganic semiconductors prevents them from extended engineering applications under extreme condition of high temperature and pressure, making it essential to improve their ductility. Here, we applied the constrained density functional theory to examine the relationship between plastic deformation and photonic excitation in sphalerite ZnS and related II-IV semiconductors. We find that ZnS transforms from a dislocation dominated deformation mode in the ground state to a twin dominated deformation mode with bandgap electronic excitations, leading to brittle failure under light illumination. This agrees very well with recent mechanical experiments on single crystal ZnS.More interesting, we predict that the ZnTe and CdTe display the opposite mechanical behavior compared to ZnS, exhibiting ductility close to metallic level with bandgap illumination, but typical brittle failure in the dark state. Our results provide a general approach to design more shapeable and tougher semiconductor devices by controlling exposure to electronic excitation.Inorganic semiconductors have attracted enormous attention because of their widespread application in electronic devices, light-emitting diodes, thermoelectrics, and photovoltaic cells [1,2]. One of the main limitations in inorganic semiconductors is their brittle mechanical behavior. Fracture or yielding often occurs in these materials upon very small-scale strain induced by external stress [3][4][5]. Therefore, understanding, designing, and controlling of the mechanical properties of inorganic semiconductors are essential for their modern engineering applications. A very recent experimental study showed that sphalerite ZnS, a representative II-VI semiconductor, displays a brittle character under conditions of light irradiation[6], but, it becomes extraordinarily plastic when the deformation is performed in complete darkness. In addition, the brittle

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confidence: 99%

Light irradiation induced brittle-to-ductile and ductile-to-brittle transition in inorganic semiconductors

Wang

Goddard

2019

Phys. Rev. B

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“…Any deviation in crystallographic orientation or in lattice constant due to local strain, may then be revealed by variation in the contrast in the electron channelling image constructed by monitoring the intensity of backscattered or forescattered electrons as the electron beam is scanned over the sample. Extremely small changes in orientation and strain are detectable, revealing, for example, low angle tilt and rotation boundaries and atomic steps and enabling extended defects such as dislocations and stacking faults to be imaged [21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29]. ECCI can provide similar information on defects as the transmission electron microscope (see sections 10.2.3 and 10.3.1.4) where the defects either thread to the surface or lie within around 50 nm of the surface.…”

Section: Electron Channelling Contrast Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Until recently, ECCI was mostly used to investigate the structural properties of metals and geological materials, but its use for the characterisation of defects in semiconductors is steadily expanding. To date ECCI has been used to image defects in nitride semiconductors [22,23,24], Si1-xGex [34], SiC [35], GaAs [26], GaP [27,28], GaAsyP1-y [28], GaSb [29]. For more information on ECCI, the following papers provide informative reviews of the technique [21,29,34,35].…”

Section: Electron Channelling Contrast Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microscopy of defects in semiconductors

Massabuau

Bruckbauer

Trager-Cowan

et al. 2019

Characterisation and Control of Defects in Semiconductors

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“…Repeated scans from the same area reveal that a number of TDs move by glide under the influence of the scanning electron beam, an effect we ascribe to REDG. 30,31 The driving force for REDG is the relief of tensile residual strain in the III-V layers. Importantly, we do not see a change in CL spot contrast during glide indicating that non-radiative recombination at TDs in these heterostructures is most likely intrinsic to the dislocation core as opposed to arising from an atmosphere of impurities.…”

Section: A Redg In Algaas Heterostructures On Simentioning

confidence: 99%

Glide of threading dislocations in (In)AlGaAs on Si induced by carrier recombination: Characteristics, mitigation, and filtering

Hughes

Shah

Mukherjee

2019

Journal of Applied Physics

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III-V optoelectronics grown epitaxially on Si substrates have large networks of dislocations due to a lattice constant mismatch between the device layers and the substrate. Recombination-enhanced dislocation glide (REDG) allows these dislocations to move and increase in length during device operation, which degrades performance. In this paper, we study REDG dynamics of threading dislocations in situ in (In)AlGaAs double heterostructures grown on Si substrates using scanning electron microscopy cathodoluminescence. The driving force for REDG arises due to coefficient of thermal expansion differences between Si and the III-V layers leading to large residual strains in the films. Tracking of threading dislocations as moving dark spot defects reveals glide characteristics that vary based on the nature of the dislocation. Remarkably, the alloying of a few atom percent of indium using metamorphic structures arrests threading dislocation glide by more than two orders of magnitude. Finally, we present REDG-based filtering as a pathway to reducing the threading dislocation density in select areas, removing a large fraction of the mobile dislocations. Together, these techniques will enable the understanding of dislocation-dislocation and carrier-dislocation interactions that have so far remained elusive during device operation, leading to reliable III-V integrated optoelectronics on silicon.

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Direct observation of recombination-enhanced dislocation glide in heteroepitaxial GaAs on silicon

Cited by 36 publications

References 40 publications

Light irradiation induced brittle-to-ductile and ductile-to-brittle transition in inorganic semiconductors

Light irradiation induced brittle-to-ductile and ductile-to-brittle transition in inorganic semiconductors

Microscopy of defects in semiconductors

Glide of threading dislocations in (In)AlGaAs on Si induced by carrier recombination: Characteristics, mitigation, and filtering

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