Compositional non-uniformities in selective area growth of GaInAs on InP grown by OMVPE

Selective area epitaxial growth of Ga_0.47In_0.53As on InP substrates patterned with silicon nitride was done by low pressure organometallic vapor phase epitaxy. Good surface morphology and clean side walls of the epitaxial layers were obtained in most of the areas of selective GalnAs growth. However, both GaAs incorporation and InAs incorporation increased near the edges of the selective growth areas due to the extra flux of Gacontaining and In-containing species migrating on the surface of silicon nitride. The increase in InAs incorporation was found at a higher rate when the adjacent silicon nitride area was large, hence, cross-hatching appeared near the edges. A characteristic length of adjacent silicon nitride seemed to be connected with the enhanced InAs incorporation, which was about 40μm at 600°. The non-uniformities in composition appeared in all wafers grown in the temperature range between 570 and 650°.     

Passivation of carbon acceptors during growth of carbon-doped GaAs,InGaAs, and HBTs by MOCVD

Carbon dopedp-type GaAs and In_0.53Ga_0.47As epitaxial layers have been grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition using CC1₄ as the carbon source. Low-temperature post-growth annealing resulted in a significant increase in the hole concentration for both GaAs and In_0.53Ga_0.47As, especially at high doping levels. The most heavily doped GaAs sample had a hole concentration of 3.6 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³ after a 5 minute anneal at ≈400° C in N₂, while the hole concentration in In_0.53Ga_0.47As reached 1.6 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³ after annealing. This annealing behavior is attributed to hydrogen passivation of carbon acceptors. Post-growth cool-down in an AsH₃/H₂ ambient was found to be the most important factor affecting the degree of passivation for single, uncapped GaAs layers. No evidence of passivation is observed in the base region of InGaP/GaAs HBTs grown at ≈625° C. The effect ofn-type cap layers and cool-down sequence on passivation of C-doped InGaAs grown at ≈525° C shows that hydrogen can come from AsH₃, PH₃, or H₂, and can be incorporated during growth and during the post-growth cool-down. In the case of InP/InGaAs HBTs, significant passivation was found to occur in the C-doped base region.     

Chemical-bonding structure of InP surface in MOVPE studied by surface photo-absorption

Using surface photo-absorption spectra, we established a phase diagram of the surface chemical-bonding structure for the P-stabilized surface in InP metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy as a function of substrate temperature and PH₃ partial pressure. At 550°C and PH₃ partial pressures of 10 and 30 Pa, the surface is (2 × 4)-like consisting of P dimers having a bond axis parallel to [110]. As the substrate temperature decreases and the PH₃ partial pressure increases, amorphous P species start to adsorb excessively on (2×4)-like P dimer surface. A c(4 × 4)-like surface was not observed. From InP growth experiments for each P surface phase, we found that, to obtain high-quality InP epitaxial layers, excess P adsorption should be suppressed by minimizing the formation of native defects.     

Effects of group V precursor and step structure on ordering in GaInP

The effects of the P precursor have been studied for GaInP layers grown at 670°C on singular (001) GaAs substrates. Use of either of the two precursors, tertiarybutylphosphine (TBP) and phosphine (PH₃), for the organometallic vapor phase epitaxial growth, has been shown to result in the same degree of CuPt order in the epitaxial layers. However, the steps on the surface are mainly bilayers, approximately 5.8Å in height, for growth using TBP and mainly monolayers for growth using PH₃. This indicates that the step structure plays no role in the ordering process occurring on the surface during growth. Examination of the spacing between these surface steps vs the input partial pressure of the P precursor indicates that neither the surface diffusion coefficient nor the sticking coefficients of group III adatoms at the step edge is dependent on the P precursor. This suggests that the step structure also has no effect on the sticking coefficient.     

Atomic layer epitaxy of InP

In this work we will discuss the growth conditions for ALE of InP. Growth experiments were carried out in a LP-MOCVD system with a fast switch gas manifold. InP layers were deposited by pulsing TMIn and PH₃, using Argon as carrier gas. A self limiting growth rate at 1 ML/cycle has been obtained with a substrate temperature as low as 320-360° C. InP epitaxial layers were grown on GaAs and InP substrates, and on GaInAs(P) layers previously deposited by conventional MOCVD. Selective area epitaxy on InP using a Si₃N₄ mask was also demonstrated. Results of this study are very encouraging for hybrid MOCVD/ALE growth of In-based compounds.     

Electron microscopy of GaAs Structures with InAs and as quantum dots

An electron-microscopy study of GaAs structures, grown by molecular-beam epitaxy, containing two coupled layers of InAs semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) overgrown with a thin buffer GaAs layer and a layer of low-temperature-grown gallium arsenide has been performed. In subsequent annealing, an array of As nanoinclusions (metallic QDs) was formed in the low-temperature-grown GaAs layer. The variation in the microstructure of the samples during temperature and annealing conditions was examined. It was found that, at comparatively low annealing temperatures (400–500°C), the formation of the As metallic QDs array weakly depends on whether InAs semiconductor QDs are present in the preceding layers or not. In this case, the As metallic QDs have a characteristic size of about 2–3 nm upon annealing at 400°C and 4–5 nm upon annealing at 500°C for 15 min. Annealing at 600°C for 15 min in the growth setup leads to a coarsening of the As metallic QDs to 8–9 nm and to the formation of groups of such QDs in the area of the low-temperature-grown GaAs which is directly adjacent to the buffer layer separating the InAs semiconductor QDs. A more prolonged annealing at an elevated temperature (760°C) in an atmosphere of hydrogen causes a further increase in the As metallic QDs’ size to 20–25 nm and their spatial displacement into the region between the coupled InAs semiconductor QDs.     

Effect of local structural defects on the precipitation of as in the vicinity of InAs quantum dots in a GaAs matrix

Electron-microscopy studies of GaAs structures grown by the method of molecular-beam epitaxy and containing arrays of semiconductor InAs quantum dots and metallic As quantum dots are performed. An array of InAs quantum dots is formed using the Stranski-Krastanow mechanism and consists of five layers of vertically conjugated quantum dots divided by a 5-nm-thick GaAs spacer layer. The array of As quantum dots is formed in an As-enriched GaAs layer grown at a low temperature above an array of InAs quantum dots using postgrowth annealing at temperatures of 400–600°C for 15 min. It is found that, during the course of structure growth near the InAs quantum dots, misfit defects are formed; these defects are represented by 60° or edge dislocations located in the heterointerface plane of the semiconductor quantum dots and penetrating to the surface through a layer of “low-temperature” GaAs. The presence of such structural defects leads to the formation of As quantum dots in the vicinity of the middle of the InAs conjugated quantum dots beyond the layer of “low-temperature” GaAs.     

Arsenic cluster superlattice in gallium arsenide grown by low-temperature molecular-beam epitaxy

Molecular-beam epitaxy at 200 °C is used to grow an InAs/GaAs superlattice containing 30 InAs delta-layers with a nominal thickness of 1 monolayer, separated by GaAs layers of thickness 30 nm. It is found that the excess arsenic concentration in such a superlattice is 0.9×10²⁰ cm⁻³. Annealing the samples at 500 and 600 °C for 15 min leads to precipitation of the excess arsenic mainly into the InAs delta-layers. As a result, a superlattice of two-dimensional sheets of nanoscale arsenic clusters, which coincides with the superlattice of the InAs delta-layers in the GaAs matrix, is obtained. Fiz. Tekh. Poluprovodn. 32, 1161–1164 (October 1998)     

Ultraviolet laser-assisted surface treatment of InP with phosphine gas

InP surface has been treated with phosphine (PH₃) gas photodecomposed by ArF excimer laser at a temperature as low as 150° C. It is shown by Auger electron spectroscopy analysis that the photolytic process of PH₃ gas is capable of removing native oxide and depositing simultaneously amorphous P film on the InP surface. Moreover, hydrogenation occurs on and near the surface of InP. An enhancement of the barrier height up to 0.63 eV is demonstrated for MIS Schottky junctions with a thin P layer formed on the treated InP substrates. Furthermore, it is shown that the barrier height varies depending on work function of the Schottky metal on the treated InP. This suggests that the present process causes a reduction in the surface state density which permits weakening of the Fermi level pinning at the surface of InP.     

AlGaSb Buffer Layers for Sb-Based Transistors

InAs quantum wells can serve as the channel for high-electron-mobility transistors. Structures are typically grown on semi-insulating GaAs substrates with 1.5 μm to 3.0 μm buffer layers of AlSb and AlGaSb accommodating the lattice mismatch. We demonstrate that high electron mobility in the InAs (>20,000 cm²/V s at 300 K) and smooth surfaces can be achieved with Al_0.8Ga_0.2Sb buffer layers as thin as 600 nm, grown at rates of 1.5 monolayers/s to 2.0 monolayers/s. The use of thinner buffer layers reduces molecular beam epitaxial growth time and source consumption. The buffer layers also exhibit higher resistivity, which should reduce excess gate leakage current and improve device isolation.     

Growth and characterizations of InP self-assembled quantum dots embedded in InAIP grown on GaAs substrates

We report the characteristics of InP self-assembled quantum dots embedded in In_0.5Al_0.5P on GaAs substrates grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The InP quantum dots show increased average dot sizes and decreased dot densities, as the growth temperature increases from 475°C to 600°C with constant growth time. Above the growth temperature of 600°C, however, dramatically smaller and densely distributed self-assembled InP quantum dots are formed. The small InP quantum dots grown at 650°C are dislocation-free “coherent” regions with an average size of ∼20 nm (height) and a density of ∼1.5 × 10⁸ mm⁻². These InP quantum dots have a broad range of luminescence corresponding to red or organge in the visible spectrum.     

Increased lateral oxidation rates of AllnAs on InP using short-period superlattices

We present greatly increased lateral oxidation rates for AlInAs grown as a short-period superlattice of InAs and AlAs compared to the analog alloy. The tensile strain in the AlAs layers is balanced by the compressive strain in the InAs layers, creating a strain-compensated alloy lattice-matched to InP. Oxidation layers with superlattice periods up to 40 Å and cladded by lattice-matched InGaAs layers were grown on InP substrates and laterally oxidized at temperatures ranging from 450°C to 525°C. The oxidation depth for a given time and temperature was seen to increase with superlattice period, allowing increased oxidation depths or reduced oxidation temperatures compared to the analog alloy. Oxidized layers were examined with transmission electron microscopy and were found to retain some of the superlattice structure.     

Characteristics of Si3N4/GaAs metal-lnsulator-semiconductor interfaces with coherent Si/Al0.3Ga0.7As interlayers

Si₃N₄/GaAs metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) interfaces with Si(10Å)/ Al_0.3Ga_0.7As (20Å) interface control layers have been characterized using capacitance-voltage (C-V) and conductance methods. The structure was in situ grown by a combination of molecular beam epitaxy and chemical vapor deposition. A density of interface states in the 1.1 × 10¹¹ eV^-1 cm^-2 range near the GaAs midgap as determined by the conductance loss has been attained with an ex situ solid phase annealing of 600°C in N₂ ambient. A dip quasi-static C-V demonstrating the inversion of the minority-carrier verifies the decent interface quality of GaAs MIS interface. The hysteresis and frequency dispersion of the MIS capacitors were lower than 100 mV, some of them as low as 50 mV under a field swing of about ±2 MV/cm. The increase of the conductance loss at higher frequencies was observed when employing the surface potential toward conduction band edge, suggesting the dominance of faster traps. Self-aligned gate depletion mode GaAs metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistors with Si/Al_0.3Ga_0.7As interlayers having 3 μm gate lengths exhibited a transconductance of about 114 mS/mm. The present article reports the first application of pseudomorphic Si/ Al_0.3Ga_0.7As interlayers to ideal GaAs MIS devices and demonstrates a favorable interface stability.     

Effect of thin strain-compensated Al0.6Ga0.4P layers on the growth of multiple-stacked InP/In0.5Al0.3Ga0.2P quantum dots

Multiple-stacked InP self-assembled quantum dots (SAQD or QD) were grown on an In_0.5Al_0.3Ga_0.2P matrix lattice-matched on a GaAs (001) substrate using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Cathodoluminescence (CL) scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy were employed to characterize the optical, morphological, and structural properties of the grown QDs. We found that the CL line width broadens and the surface becomes rough with an increase in the number of stacked QD layers in the structure. However, by introducing thin tensile-strained Al_0.6Ga_0.4P layers in the middle of In_0.5Al_0.3Ga_0.2P spacer layers to compensate the compressive strain of the InP QD layers, the CL and morphology are significantly improved. Using this technique, 30-stacked InP/In_0.5Al_0.3Ga_0.2P QD structures with improved CL properties and surface morphology were realized.     

Metalorganic vapor phase epitaxial growth and structural characterization of self-assembled InAs nanometer-sized Islands on InP(001)

Self-assembled InAs islands were grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on InP(001) and characterized by atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The growth temperature (450–600°C), the InAs deposition time (3–12 s, using a growth rate of ～2.3Å/s), and the growth interruption time (8–240 s) were varied systematically in order to investigate the effect of thermodynamic and kinetic factors on the structural properties of InAs/InP and InP/InAs/InP structures. It is found that the structural properties of islands vary widely with the growth conditions, ranging from very small (4–5 nm height, ～30–60 nm in diameter) coherent islands at low temperature (450–500°C) to large (～350 nm wide) plastically relaxed islands at high temperature (600°C). For a given deposition time, the height of the coherent islands increases markedly with the growth temperature while their diameter shows only a moderate increase. The growth interruption time also affects the formation and the evolution of islands, which clearly shows that these processes are kinetically limited. Coherent islands with structural properties suitable for use in optoelectronic devices are obtained from ～2.4–4.8 monolayer thick InAs layers using a growth temperature of 500°C and a 30 s interruption time.     

Formation mechanism of InxGa1−xAs ohmic contacts to n-type GaAs prepared by radio frequency sputtering

The formation mechanisms of InAs/Ni/W ohmic contacts to n-type GaAs prepared by radio-frequency (rf) sputtering were studied by measuring contact resistances (R_c) using a transmission line method and by analyzing the interfacial structure mainly by x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Current-voltage characteristics of the InAs/Ni/W contacts after annealing at temperatures above 600°C showed “ohmic-like behavior.” In order to obtain the “ohmic” behavior in the contacts, pre-heating at 300°C prior to high temperature annealing was found to be essential. The contacts showed ohmic behavior after annealing at temperatures in the range of 500∼850°C and contact resistance values of as low as ∼0.3Ω-mm were obtained. By analyzing the interfacial structures of these contacts, In_xGa_1−xAs layers with low density of misfit dislocations at the In_xGa_1−xAs and GaAs interface were observed to grow epitaxially on the GaAs substrate upon heating at high temperatures. This intermediate In_xGa_1−xAs layer is believed to divide the high energy barrier at the contact metal and GaAs interface into two low barriers, resulting in reduction of the contact resistance. In addition, Ni was found to play a key role to relax a strain in the In_xGa_1−xAs layer (introduced due to lattice mismatch between the In_xGa_1−xAs and GaAs) by forming an intermediate Ni_xGaAs layer on the GaAs surface prior to formation of the In_xGa_1−xxAs layer.     

Self-organization phenomenon of strained InGaAs on InP (311) substrates grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

We have demonstrated that a self-organization phenomenon occurs in strained InGaAs system on InP (311) substrates grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. This suggests that a similar formation process of nanocrystals exists not only on the GaAs (311)B substrate but also on the InP (311)B substrate. However, the ordering and the size homogeneity of the self-organized nanocrystals are slightly worse than those of the InGaAs/AlGaAs system on the GaAs (311)B substrate. The tensilely strained condition of a InGaAs/InP system with growth interruption in a PH₃ atmosphere reveals a surface morphology with nanocrystals even on the InP (100) substrate. It was found that strain energy and high growth temperature are important factors for self-organization on III-V compound semiconductors. Preliminary results indicate that the self-organized nanostructures in strained InGaAs/InP systems on InP substrates exhibit room temperature photoluminescent emissions at a wavelength of around 1.3 p.m.     

Strain from modified interface compositions in InGaAs/InP superlattices

Thin strained regions have been inserted at the interfaces of lattice-matched InGaAs/lnP superlattices to assess growth conditions for tailoring of localized compositional changes and for studying As-P intermixing behavior during heterojunction growth. Also, precise growth rates of binary composition layers were determined from specially designed superlattices using strained layers of common anion compounds inserted periodically into InP and GaAs. Growth rates of fractional monolayers are found to be identical to thick layer growth rates. When thin InAs, GaAs, GaP, ALAs, or AIP layers were inserted at the InGaAs/lnP heterojunctions, the measured strain at either one or both interfaces was equal to the strain predicted from the growth rate x time product. Excess strain seen in some cases is due to a change in As-P intermixing and this component can be separated from the predicted strain. Insertion of Ga-compounds at the InP-grown-on-InGaAs interface causes interface roughening which degrades the superlattice. For all other compositions the thin, highly strained regions are not detrimental to the crystalline quality of the periodic structure.     

LP-MOCVD grown (lnAs)m(GaAs)m short period superlattices on InP

(InAs)_m(GaAs)_m (1 ≤ m ≤ 12) short period superlattices (SPSs) have been grown on semi-insulated InP substrates with a 200 nm InP cap layer using low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). According to double crystal x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy results, the critical layer thickness of (InAs)_m(GaAs)_m SPS was observed to be ～30Å (m = 5). For the SPS below the critical layer thickness, mirror-like surface morphology was found without defects, and strong intensity Fourier transformed photoluminescence (FT-PL) spectra were also obtained at room temperature. The SPS with m = 4 showed a drastic improvement in photoluminescence intensity of order of two compared to an InGaAs ternary layer. However, the SPS with a large value of m (m ≥ 6), rough surface was observed with defects, with broad and weak FT-PL spectra. The surface morphology of SPS was greatly affected by the substrate orientation. The SPS with m = 5 was grown on two degree tilted substrate from (100) direction and showed poor surface morphology as compared to the one grown on (100) exact substrate Moreover, the SPS grown on a (111)B substrate showed a rough triangular pattern with Nomarski optical microscopy. In-situ thermal annealed SPS with m = 4 showed a 18 meV increase in PL peak energy compared to the as-grown sample due to phase separation resulting from thermal interdiffusion.     

Lattice mismatched InGaAs on silicon photodetectors grown by molecular beam epitaxy

In_0.5Ga_0.5As on silicon photodetectors, including three types of interdigitated-finger devices as well as linear photoconductors, were fabricated and measured. The InGaAs/Si structure was grown by molecular beam epitaxy and utilized a 100 Å GaAs intervening nucleation layer between the silicon substrate and the InGaAs layers, step-graded In_xGa_1?xAs layers, and an in-situ grown 40 Å thick GaAs surface layer, which substantially enhanced the metal-semiconductor barrier height (Φ_b = 0.67 V) for the InGaAs. Schottky diodes fabricated independently of the photodetectors had nearly ideal characteristics with an ideality factor (n) of 1.02 and a reverse breakdown voltage of 40 V. The interdigitated Schottky photodetectors showed dark currents between <3nA and 54 μA at a 3 V bias and initial photoresponse rise times in the range of 600 to 725 ps, comparable to similar InGaAs metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors grown lattice matched on InP. The photoconductors fabricated in the same material had rise times in the range of 575 to 1300 ps, thus being slightly slower, and had dark currents of 7 to 80 mA. The responsivity of the photoconductors was typically greater than that of the diodes by a factor of five to fifteen. The results show potential for monolithic integration of InGaAs photodetectors on silicon substrates.