Heteroepitaxy of InP on Silicon-on-Insulator for Optoelectronic Integration

Abstract

Epitaxial lateral overgrowth of InP was performed on patterned silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and compared with that on Si substrates in a low pressure hydride vapor phase epitaxy system. The InP was characterized by cathodoluminescence. No red shift of peak wavelength was detected for InP/SOI indicating a negligible thermal strain. Additional low energy peaks were found in some regions with a granular structure on the SOI template. A subsequent growth of an InGaAsP/InP MQW (multi quantum well) structure (λ ~ 1.5 µm) was grown on the SOI template and on a planar InP reference sample by metal- organic phase epitaxy. The MQW was characterized by room temperature photoluminescence. A red shift of 35 nm with respect to the reference sample was attributed to the selective-area effect causing thicker wells and/or an increased indium content. Although the PL intensity was weaker than that obtained for the reference, the FWHMs were comparable.