Generation and suppression process of crystalline defects in GaP layers grown on misoriented Si(1 0 0) substrates

Abstract

We have investigated the generation process of crystalline defects in GaP layers grown on Si substrates (GaP/Si) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and migration enhanced epitaxy (MEE). Transmission electron microscopy observations revealed that few threading defects such as stacking faults and threading dislocations are detected in GaP/Si by MEE. In addition, a regular network of misfit dislocations was generated during the lattice relaxation process. On the other hand, stacking faults were generated in high density at the hetero-interface and threading dislocations as well as interfacial misfit dislocations were observed in GaP/Si by MBE. The generation of stacking faults would be related to the coalescence or expansion of isolated GaP islands and the presence of stacking faults would affect the generation of threading dislocations.