Review of Highly Mismatched III-V Heteroepitaxy Growth on (001) Silicon

Abstract

Si-based group III-V material enables a multitude of applications and functionalities of the novel optoelectronic integration chips (OEICs) owing to their excellent optoelectronic properties and compatibility with the mature Si CMOS process technology. To achieve high performance OEICs, the crystal quality of the group III-V epitaxial layer plays an extremely vital role. However, there are several challenges for high quality group III-V material growth on Si, such as a large lattice mismatch, highly thermal expansion coefficient difference, and huge dissimilarity between group III-V material and Si, which inevitably leads to the formation of high threading dislocation densities (TDDs) and anti-phase boundaries (APBs). In view of the above-mentioned growth problems, this review details the defects formation and defects suppression methods to grow III-V materials on Si substrate (such as GaAs and InP), so as to give readers a full understanding on the group III-V hetero-epitaxial growth on Si substrates. Based on the previous literature investigation, two main concepts (global growth and selective epitaxial growth (SEG)) were proposed. Besides, we highlight the advanced technologies, such as the miscut substrate, multi-type buffer layer, strain superlattice (SLs), and epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO), to decrease the TDDs and APBs. To achieve high performance OEICs, the growth strategy and development trend for group III-V material on Si platform were also emphasized

Novel InGaSb/AlP Quantum Dots for Non-Volatile Memories

“…According to the model-solid theory [ 42 ], a strain leads to an energy band shift that, consequently, has its effect on the SAQD energy spectrum. Unfortunately, when the elastic energy of SAQD exceeds some critical level, plastic relaxation processes can occur and threading dislocations can be generated [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]. A distortion of translation symmetry in the dislocation core results in the appearance of deep centers close to the SAQDs, and it could lead to the tunnel hole escape from an SAQD and, consequently, to a dramatic shortening of hole storage time.…”

“…The introduction of the dislocation occurs when the critical SAQD elastic energy level is reached [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ], and it is governed by SAQD sizes and SAQD/matrix lattice constant mismatch f dependent on the SAQD alloy composition. Thus, we need to calculate the critical sizes of SAQD as a function of the alloy composition.…”

Monolithic Integration of O-Band InAs Quantum Dot Lasers with Engineered GaAs Virtual Substrate Based on Silicon

“…Therefore, crystal quality management for GaAs/Si virtual substrate plays a vital role in solving the technical bottleneck for high performance Si-based InAs/GaAs QD lasers. Up to now, researchers have proposed several methods to grow high-quality GaAs/Si virtual substrates, including thick GaAs buffer layer, thick GaAs/Ge buffer layer, 6° miscut Ge (100), V-groove Si (100) substrate, InGaAs defect-filter layers (DFLs), GaAs/InGaAs superlattice (SLS) buffer layers, patterned Si substrates, AlGaAs seed layers, etc [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 ]. Through the asymmetric step-graded filter structure, which prompts plastic relaxation, a surface TDD of 2 × 10 6 cm −2 was achieved with a total buffer thickness of 2.55 μm by MBE [ 55 ].…”

Reduced Dislocation of GaAs Layer Grown on Ge-Buffered Si (001) Substrate Using Dislocation Filter Layers for an O-Band InAs/GaAs Quantum Dot Narrow-Ridge Laser

“…Nevertheless, the direct epitaxial growth of GaAs materials on Si substrates encounters three major challenges [ 29 ]: large lattice mismatch, polarity difference, and thermal expansion mismatch. These problems lead to the formation of threading dislocations (TDs) and antiphase boundaries (APBs), respectively.…”