Misfit dislocation generation mechanisms in InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures

Abstract

An experimental investigation of misfit dislocation generation mechanisms at an InGaAs/GaAs heterointerface is reported. InGaAs epitaxial layers were grown by low-pressure organometallic vapor-phase epitaxy on patterned and unpatterned GaAs substrates having etch-pit densities (EPD) of 200, 1400, and 10 000 cm−2. After epitaxial growth, the samples were annealed at temperatures between 650 and 750 °C, and analyzed by optical and transmission electron microscopy. For the range of substrate EPD studied, it was found that the substrate EPD controls the onset of misfit dislocation generation for low-temperature epitaxy (<600 °C) on unpatterned substrates. When epilayers were annealed at 750 °C, the density of misfit dislocations was independent of the substrate EPD. These studies also show that the dominant misfit dislocation generation mechanism for films grown on patterned substrates is nucleation at the growth-mesa edge. The density of preexisting threading dislocations has little influence on misfit dislocation generation for films selectively deposited within 100×100 μm2 growth windows. For selective heteroepitaxy, misfit dislocation generation strongly depends on the crystallographic orientation of the growth-mesa edge.