Superior Quality Low-Temperature Growth of Three-Dimensional Semiconductors Using Intermediate Two-Dimensional Layers

Abstract

The low-temperature growth of materials that support high-performance devices is crucial for advanced semiconductor technologies such as integrated circuits built using monolithic three-dimensional (3D) integration and flexible electronics. However, low growth temperature prohibits sufficient atomic diffusion and directly leads to poor material quality, imposing severe challenges that limit device performance. Here, we demonstrate superior quality growth of 3D semiconductors at growth temperatures reduced by >200 °C by using two-dimensional (2D) materials as intermediate layers to optimize the potential energy barrier for adatom diffusion. We reveal the benefits of maintaining, but reducing, the potential field through the 2D layer, which coupled with the inert surface of the 2D material lowers the kinetic barriers, enabling long-distance atomic diffusion and enhanced material quality at lower growth temperatures. As model systems, GaN and ZnSe, grown using WSe2 and graphene intermediate layers, exhibit larger grains, preferred orientation, reduced strain, and improved carrier mobility, all at temperatures lower by >200 °C compared to direct growth as characterized by diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman, and Hall measurements. The realization of high-performance materials using 2D intermediate layers can enable transformative technologies under thermal budget restrictions, and the 2D/3D heterostructures could enable promising heterostructures for future device designs.

Air‐Promoted Light‐Driven Hydrogen Production from Bioethanol over Core/Shell Cr2O3@GaN Nanoarchitecture

“…[30][31][32] Raman peaks at 304 cm À 1 and 564 cm À 1 were attributed to GaN NWs, while the peak at 521 cm À 1 was due to Si wafer. [33,34] Additionally, the morphology of Cr oxide was directly related to the precursor concentrations (Figure S4). Low concentration of Cr-based precursor was not able to produce Cr 2 O 3 @GaN NWs core/shell structure.…”

Recent Advances in 2D Material Theory, Synthesis, Properties, and Applications

“…An increase in the crystallinity and grain size of the epi-film have been observed when an intermediate 2D layer is used (Figure d,e) . Zhou et al , used a MBE grown intermediate WSe 2 layer to improve the growth quality of zinc selenide (ZnSe) on sapphire at BEOL compatible temperatures (Figure f). ZnSe is a promising p-type semiconductor and is sought after as a channel material for BEOL transistors.…”

“…An advantage of remote epitaxy is that adding a graphene intermediate layer between a grown film and its host wafer does not degrade the device performance of grown films (Figure b) . This area that had originally started from homoepitaxy of GaAs with graphene as an intermediate layer has now expanded to a variety of epitaxial materials (e.g., GaAs, III-N, and oxide ultrathin films) and intermediate 2D layers (e.g., hBN and TMDs).…”

“…An advantage of remote epitaxy is that adding a graphene intermediate layer between a grown film and its host wafer does not degrade the device performance of grown films (Figure 11b). 179 This area that had originally started from homoepitaxy of GaAs with graphene as an intermediate layer has now expanded to a variety of epitaxial materials (e.g., GaAs, 180 III-N, 181 and oxide ultrathin films 182 ) and intermediate 2D layers (e.g., hBN 183 and TMDs 184 ). Since remote epitaxy is facilitated by the intermediate 2D film, the quality of this layer is one of the most important variables dictating the crystallinity of the grown epilayer.…”

Air-promoted light-driven hydrogen production from bioethanol over core/shell CrOx@GaN nanoarchitecture

“…1G displayed that the signals belonging to GaN NWs and Si wafer still could be detected after decorating with the Cr oxide layer. 23,24 Remarkably, as characterized by photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, the loading of Cr 2 O 3 evidently mitigated the recombination of photo-induced electrons and holes in the coupled architecture (Extended Data Fig. 2C), which is indicative of e cient charge carrier separation.…”