Universal description of III-V/Si epitaxial growth processes

Ida Lucci (1) , Simon Charbonnier (2) , L. Pedesseau (3) , Maxime Vallet (4, 5) , Laurent Cerutti (6, 7) , Jean-Baptiste Rodriguez (6, 7) , Eric Tournié (6, 7) , Rozenn Bernard (3) , Antoine Létoublon (3) , Nicolas Bertru (3) , Alain Le Corre (3) , Stephanie Rennesson (8) , Fabrice Semond (8) , Gilles Patriarche (9) , Ludovic Largeau (9) , Pascal Turban (2) , Anne Ponchet (4, 5) , C. Cornet (3)

1 INSA Rennes - Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Rennes
2 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes
3 Institut FOTON - Institut des Fonctions Optiques pour les Technologies de l'informatiON
4 CEMES - Centre d'élaboration de matériaux et d'études structurales
5 CEMES-SINanO - Surfaces, Interfaces et Nano-Objets
6 IES - Institut d’Electronique et des Systèmes
7 NANOMIR - Composants à Nanostructure pour le moyen infrarouge
8 CRHEA - Centre de recherche sur l'hétéroepitaxie et ses applications
9 C2N - Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies [Marcoussis]

Here, we experimentally and theoretically clarify III-V/Si crystal growth processes. Atomically resolved microscopy shows that monodomain three-dimensional islands are observed at the early stages of AlSb, AlN, and GaP epitaxy on Si, independently of misfit. It is also shown that complete III-V/Si wetting cannot be achieved in most III-V/Si systems. Surface/interface contributions to the free-energy variations are found to be prominent over strain relief processes. We finally propose a general and unified description of III-V/Si growth processes, including a description of the formation of antiphase boundaries.

Domains: Physics [physics]

Ida Lucci, Simon Charbonnier, L. Pedesseau, Maxime Vallet, Laurent Cerutti, et al.. Universal description of III-V/Si epitaxial growth processes. Physical Review Materials, 2018, 2 (6), pp.060401(R). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.2.060401⟩. ⟨hal-01833206⟩