Optical and interfacial properties of epitaxially fused GaInP/Si heterojunction

Abstract

This work investigates the optical and interfacial properties of epitaxially fused direct GaInP/Si heterojunctions realized by the corrugated epitaxial lateral overgrowth (CELOG) approach. To provide a broad analysis of the above heterojunction, photoluminescence (PL), cathodoluminescence (CL), Raman, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed in this study. The enhanced luminescence intensity was observed in the direct GaInP/Si heterojunction in the cross-sectional CL because of the reduced defect density in the CELOG GaInP. The spatial resolution dependent PL and CL spectra of GaInP on Si yielded the composition variation of GaInP arising from the anisotropic growth behavior of CELOG. The Ga composition, x, in GaxIn1−xP/Si at the interface deduced from the lattice constant measured by TEM has a good agreement with the results of PL and CL. Low thermal and lattice mismatch strain in CELOG GaInP on Si were revealed by the Raman spectra. TEM investigation further revealed the atomic structure of some planar defects in CELOG GaInP over Si. It is confirmed that although a thin atomic disorder was observed on the surface of Si substrate, an epitaxially fused GaInP/Si heterojunction with a reduced threading dislocation density of ∼6.4 × 107 cm−2 in comparison to ∼4.8 × 108 cm−2 in the InP seed on Si has been successfully fabricated by the CELOG technique despite about 4% lattice mismatch between GaInP and Si. The findings of this study demonstrate the great potential of the CELOG technique for promoting monolithic integration of III-V/Si-based optoelectronics.