In situ metal-organic chemical vapour deposition growth of III–V semiconductor nanowires in the Lund environmental transmission electron microscope

Abstract

A new environmental transmission electron microscope has been installed in Lund in order to investigate the growth of III–V semiconductor nanowires by metal-organic chemical vapour deposition. We report here on the concepts behind the design of the facility and on details of the operation, and we refer to early results to highlight the new information that can be accessed from in situ studies. The installation includes a gas handling system that delivers the precursors to III–V semiconductor growth under controlled conditions. The core microscope is a Hitachi HF-3300S 300 kV transmission electron microscope with additional pumping that can handle up to 6 Pa of gas injected into the specimen area, or up to 400 Pa if an apertured lid is fitted to the holder. Various custom specimen holders incorporate precursor gas lines, a heating chip or a double tilt mechanism. The polepiece gap has been expanded to accommodate the holders, while the combination of an imaging aberration corrector and a cold field emission gun delivers a point resolution of 86 pm. Single images with atomic level detail are collected by one camera while another camera provides real-time video recording. A scanning unit offers high angle annular dark field and secondary electron images, and compositional microanalysis is performed with energy dispersive spectroscopy. In summary, III–V nanowires have been grown successfully in situ across a range of controlled conditions such as substrate temperature and precursor partial pressures. Atomic resolution images and movies, and spectroscopy data taken during this growth allow detailed measurements of structures, compositions and growth rates—data that are otherwise hard or impossible to obtain from ex situ studies—and further our understanding of the mechanisms of crystal growth.