Strain compensation in a semiconducting device structure using an intentionally mismatched uniform buffer layer

Abstract

The extent of strain relaxation in semiconducting device heterostructures has important implications in the design of high electron mobility transistors, light-emitting diodes, and laser diodes, in which the residual strain affects the device characteristics. In this work, we develop the theoretical framework for understanding strain compensation in a semiconductor device layer using a uniform buffer layer which can be intentionally mismatched to the material above. Specifically, we determined the critical condition for complete strain compensation in the device layer by intentionally introducing a compositional mismatch at the device-buffer interface. We present minimum energy calculations and show that for a given device layer with fixed mismatch and layer thickness, the buffer layer may be designed with the appropriate combination of thickness and mismatch such that the device layer will have zero residual strain in equilibrium. Such a structure can be referred to as a completely strain-compensated design. In the more general case, there may be partial strain compensation, and we give a simple physics-based Gaussian-type function describing the residual strain in the device layer. We have applied this general framework to InxGa1−xAs/GaAs (001) heterostructures for the purpose of illustration, but the work is applicable to any diamond or zinc blende (001) heteroepitaxial material system.