MBE Growth of GaAs on Si (100)

1987 ◽  
Vol 91 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Ahearn ◽  
P. Uppal

ABSTRACTMolecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of GaAs on Si was investigated for three Si substrate orientations: exact (100), 4° off (100) towards (011), and 4° off towards (010). Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (X-TEM) analysis indicated a high dislocation density at the GaAs-Si interface that decreased away from the interface. Changing the orientation significantly affected the dislocation arrangement in the films.In the exact (100) case, dislocations from different glide systems formed pyramids, and dislocation annihilation resulted in linear defects propagating to the bottom of pits on the GaAs surface. On Si substrates oriented 4° off of (100), dislocation pyramids were not observed which we attribute to the different stresses acting on different glide systems. Planar TEM sections indicated that the dislocation densities at th surfaces of the 2-μm-thick films were 8 × 108 /cm2 for exact (100), 3.4 × 108/cm2 for 4° off (100) towards (010), and 1.6 × 108/cm2 for 4° off towards (011) orientations. When etching was used to evaluate anti-phase domain (APD) density, the exact (100) and off (100) orientations toward (010) showed APD's in some areas; off (100) toward (011) orientations were apparently APD-free. Results of photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy of each of the wafers showed marked differences in peak intensities for the different orientations. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) showed that roughly 1/4 of a monolayer of Si was incorporated in the GaAs, mostly concentrated in the first 250 nm near the GaAs-Si interface.

2005 ◽  
Vol 892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaojun Weng ◽  
Srinivasan Raghavan ◽  
Elizabeth C Dickey ◽  
Joan M Redwing

AbstractWe have studied the evolution of stress and microstructure of compositionally graded Al1-xGaxN (0 ≤ x ≤1) buffer layers on (111) Si substrates with varying thicknesses. In-situ stress measurements reveal a tensile-to-compressive stress transition that occurs near the half-thickness in each buffer layer. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows a significant reduction in threading dislocation (TD) density in the top half of the buffer layer, suggesting that the compressive stress enhances the threading dislocation annihilation. The composition of the buffer layers varies linearly with thickness, as determined by X-ray energy dispersive spectrometry (XEDS). The composition grading-induced compressive stress offsets the tensile stress introduced by microstructure evolution, thus yielding a tensile-to-compressive stress transition at x ≈ 0.5.


Author(s):  
K.M. Hones ◽  
P. Sheldon ◽  
B.G. Yacobi ◽  
A. Mason

There is increasing interest in growing epitaxial GaAs on Si substrates. Such a device structure would allow low-cost substrates to be used for high-efficiency cascade- junction solar cells. However, high-defect densities may result from the large lattice mismatch (∼4%) between the GaAs epilayer and the silicon substrate. These defects can act as nonradiative recombination centers that can degrade the optical and electrical properties of the epitaxially grown GaAs. For this reason, it is important to optimize epilayer growth conditions in order to minimize resulting dislocation densities. The purpose of this paper is to provide an indication of the quality of the epitaxially grown GaAs layers by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to examine dislocation type and density as a function of various growth conditions. In this study an intermediate Ge layer was used to avoid nucleation difficulties observed for GaAs growth directly on Si substrates. GaAs/Ge epilayers were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on Si substrates in a manner similar to that described previously.


Author(s):  
Ching Shan Sung ◽  
Hsiu Ting Lee ◽  
Jian Shing Luo

Abstract Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) plays an important role in the structural analysis and characterization of materials for process evaluation and failure analysis in the integrated circuit (IC) industry as device shrinkage continues. It is well known that a high quality TEM sample is one of the keys which enables to facilitate successful TEM analysis. This paper demonstrates a few examples to show the tricks on positioning, protection deposition, sample dicing, and focused ion beam milling of the TEM sample preparation for advanced DRAMs. The micro-structures of the devices and samples architectures were observed by using cross sectional transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and optical microscopy. Following these tricks can help readers to prepare TEM samples with higher quality and efficiency.


1989 ◽  
Vol 160 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. L. Lin ◽  
C. W. Nieh

AbstractEpitaxial IrSi3 films have been grown on Si (111) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) at temperatures ranging from 630 to 800 °C and by solid phase epitaxy (SPE) at 500 °C. Good surface morphology was observed for IrSi3 layers grown by MBE at temperatures below 680 °C, and an increasing tendency to form islands is noted in samples grown at higher temperatures. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis reveals that the IrSi3 layers grow epitaxially on Si(111) with three epitaxial modes depending on the growth conditions. For IrSi3 layers grown by MBE at 630 °C, two epitaxial modes were observed with ~ 50% area coverage for each mode. Single mode epitaxial growth was achieved at a higher MBE growth temperature, but with island formation in the IrSi3 layer. A template technique was used with MBE to improve the IrSi3 surface morphology at higher growth temperatures. Furthermore, single-crystal IrSi3 was grown on Si(111) at 500 °C by SPE, with annealing performed in-situ in a TEM chamber.


1993 ◽  
Vol 312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Mirin ◽  
Mohan Krishnamurthy ◽  
James Ibbetson ◽  
Arthur Gossard ◽  
John English ◽  
...  

AbstractHigh temperature (≥ 650°C) MBE growth of AlAs and AlAs/GaAs superlattices on (100) GaAs is shown to lead to quasi-periodic facetting. We demonstrate that the facetting is only due to the AlAs layers, and growth of GaAs on top of the facets replanarizes the surface. We show that the roughness between the AlAs and GaAs layers increases with increasing number of periods in the superlattice. The roughness increases to form distinct facets, which rapidly grow at the expense of the (100) surface. Within a few periods of the initial facet formation, the (100) surface has disappeared and only the facet planes are visible in cross-sectional transmission electron micrographs. At this point, the reflection high-energy electron diffraction pattern is spotty, and the specular spot is a distinct chevron. We also show that the facetting becomes more pronounced as the substrate temperature is increased from 620°C to 710°C. Atomic force micrographs show that the valleys enclosed by the facets can be several microns long, but they may also be only several nanometers long, depending on the growth conditions.


1993 ◽  
Vol 311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Douglas G. Ivey

ABSTRACTSilicide formation through deposition of Ni onto hot Si substrates has been investigated. Ni was deposited onto <100> oriented Si wafers, which were heated up to 300°C, by e-beam evaporation under a vacuum of <2x10-6 Torr. The deposition rates were varied from 0.1 nm/s to 6 nm/s. The samples were then examined by both cross sectional and plan view transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and electron diffraction. The experimental results are discussed in terms of a new kinetic model.


1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 776-777
Author(s):  
S.J. Lloyd ◽  
J.E. Pitchford ◽  
J.M. Molina-Aldareguia ◽  
Z.H. Barber ◽  
M.G. Blamire ◽  
...  

Nanoindentation allows the hardness of thin coatings and synthetic multilayer structures to be measured, since indentation depths can be as little as a few 10s of nm. In combination with the cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis described here it is possible to observe the deformation structure under an indent, and potentially to understand deformation mechanisms on a nm scale in a wide variety of materials. Synthetic multilayers are a particularly interesting system to investigate. Variations in hardness with the multilayer compositional repeat distance (A) have been reported for several systems. The highest hardnesses, which are in excess of what a simple “rule of mixtures” would predict, occur in nitride multilayers at A ∼5nm. Here we present some preliminary results showing the deformation structure in both a monolithic NbN film and a TiN/NbN multilayer in which both components have the rQck salt structure with lattice parameters 0.424nm (TiN) and 0.439nm (NbN).


1992 ◽  
Vol 263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting-Yen Chiang ◽  
En-Huery Liu ◽  
Der-Hwa Yiin ◽  
Tri-Rung Yew

ABSTRACTThis paper presents results of the low—temperature epitaxial growth of GaAs on Si substrates with orientation 1°—4° off (100) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The epitaxial growth ·is carried out on Si wafers subjected to HF solution treatment by “spin-etch” technique before the wafer is transferred to the entry chamber of MBE system. Methods used for reducing defect density in the epitaxial layers are proposed. The characterization techniques include cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM), plan-view transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (S EM), and double crystal X-ray diffraction (DCXRD). Epitaxial films with a full width at half—maximum (FWHM) of about 310 arcsec measured by DCXRD are obtained without annealing.-


2008 ◽  
Vol 381-382 ◽  
pp. 525-528 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.L. Wang ◽  
Han Huang ◽  
Jin Zou ◽  
Li Bo Zhou

Silicon (100) substrates machined by chemo-mechanical-grinding (CMG) and chemicalmechanical- polishing (CMP) were investigated using atomic force microscopy, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy and nanoindentation. It was found that the substrate surface after CMG was slightly better than machined by CMP in terms of roughness. The transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that the CMG-generated subsurface was defect-free, but the CMP specimen had a crystalline layer of about 4 nm in thickness on the top of the silicon lattice as evidenced by the extra diffraction spots. Nanoindentation results indicated that there exists a slight difference in mechanical properties between the CMG and CMP machined substrates.


1993 ◽  
Vol 319 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.R. Powell ◽  
S.S. Iyer ◽  
F.K. Legoues

AbstractIn this growth process a new strain relief mechanism operates, whereby the SiGe epitaxial layer relaxes without the generation of threading dislocations within the SiGe layer. This is achieved by depositing SiGe on an ultrathin Silicon On Insulator, SOl, substrate with a superficial silicon thickness less than the SiGe layer thickness. Initially, the thin Si layer is put under tension due to an equalization of the strain between the Si and SiGe layers. Thereafter, the strain created in the thin Si layer relaxes by plastic deformation. Since the dislocations are formed and glide in the thin Si layer, no threading dislocation is ever introduced into the upper SiGe material, which appeared dislocation free to the limit of the cross sectional Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis. We thus have a method for producing very low dislocation, relaxed SiGe films with the additional benefit of an SO substrate. This buffer structure is significantly less than a micrometer in thickness and offers distinct advantages over the thick SiGe buffer layers presently in use.


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