Liquid-phase epitaxy of In(As, Sb) on GaSb substrates using antimony-rich melts

InAs0.3Sb0.7 films grown on (100) GaSb substrates with a buffer layer by liquid-phase epitaxy

“…There has been elements interdiffusion in the interface and gallium was dissolved in the films. In general, attempts to grow InAs x Sb 1Àx films on GaSb from In-rich melts would result in rapid dissolution of the substrate because the thermodynamic tendency of the growth solutions is to dissolve GaSb substrates due to undersaturation with respect to antimony in the melt [15,16]. So, we adopted the scheme to grow a InAs 0.91 Sb 0.09 buffer layer lattice matched to GaSb substrate.…”

“…As is much more accessible and economical than MBE and MOCVD, liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) is often considered for the growth of InAs x Sb 1Àx films. High-quality growth of InAs x Sb 1Àx films by LPE is only obtained at either end of the composition range corresponding to values of xo0.15 and x40.89 [15][16][17][18]. Very recently, Peng et al [19] Among the substrates of III-V materials, the lattice mismatch of GaSb and InSb is smaller than others.…”

LPE growth and characterization of mid-infrared InAs0.85Sb0.15 film on InAs substrate

“…However GaSb substrate tends to dissolve quickly into the ternary liquid solution, which affects the film quality [12,15]. To get over this drawback InAs 1-x Sb x films on GaSb have been grown using antimony-rich melt [14], large supercooling (DT410 1C) [15], or low substrate temperature [12]. Although the severity of the substrate dissolution was suppressed in those cases, the surfaces of the epilayers were often dominated by a strong cross-hatch pattern when x40.12 [12].…”

“…Thus, suitable substrates for LPE growth of InAs 1À x Sb x include only InAs, GaSb, and InSb [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. On InAs or GaSb substrate, device-level InAs 1-x Sb x films directly grown by LPE were only obtained with xo0.12 for mid-infrared application and, on InSb substrate, it is x40.89 for long-wavelength infrared application [11][12][13][14][15][16]. GaSb substrate is lattice-matched to InAs 1À x Sb x (x¼0.09).…”

“…The source materials were 6 N In, Sb, and pieces of undoped crystalline InAs wafers (n $ 10 16 cm À 3 at room temperature) instead of polycrystalline InAs as used in Refs. [10][11][12][13][14][15]. The substrates were one-side well-polished (1 0 0) InAs wafers that were nominally undoped and sized up to 12 Â 14 mm 2 .…”