Molecular-beam epitaxial growth and characterization of InSb on Si

Abstract

InSb layers have been epitaxially grown on Si substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy. Room-temperature electron mobilities are 48 000 and 39 000 cm2/V s for 3.2-μm-thick InSb with and without GaAs buffers, respectively. The corresponding carrier concentrations are 2.2 ×1016 and 2.7 ×1016 cm−3. A sample with an 8-μm thickness has room-temperature mobilities as high as 55 000 cm2/V s with carrier concentrations of ∼2.0 ×1016 cm−3. A sharp band-edge transmission spectrum is observed at room temperature for the 8-μm layer. The photoluminescence spectrum of a 3.2-μm InSb layer grown directly on Si shows a linewidth of 50 meV.