Beam Equivalent Pressure Research Articles

Manipulating formation of different InGaAs/GaAs nanostructures via tailoring As4 flux

This research provides a flexible approach to manipulate formation of InGaAs nanostructures on the GaAs (100) surface by varying arsenic (As4) beam equivalent pressure (BEP). By selecting the As4/(In+Ga) BEP ratio to be 4, 8, 20, 50 and 100, we were able to obtain different quantum structures from quantum well (QW) to quantum dots (QDs), then to spatially ordered quantum dot chains (QD-chains), and finally to quantum wires (QWRs), respectively. This transformation of nanostructures was explained by anisotropic surface diffusion coupled with the strain relieving Stranski–Krastanov growth mode, while the anisotropy was modulated by increasing As4 flux and subsequently enhanced by multilayer-stacking growth with a suitable spacer thickness. Photoluminescence characteristics show correlation to the nanostructure morphology for each sample. In particular, the formation of QD-chains and QWRs results in anisotropic features that offer potential device applications.

Random alloy growth of AlAs0.08Sb0.92 on GaSb under high Group-V flux condition

The growth of AlAsxSb1-x epilayers with x < 0.1 is crucial for various optoelectronic device applications. However, achieving the desired alloy composition and lattice-matched condition remains challenging. In this study, the epitaxial growth of the random alloy AlAsSb on GaSb was investigated using molecular beam epitaxy. The objective was to determine the optimal growth condition to obtain AlAs0.08Sb0.92 on GaSb (lattice-matched to GaSb) with a high growth rate and under a high group-V/III beam equivalent pressure (BEP) ratio. The growth parameters, including the group-V/III BEP ratio, growth rate, and temperature, were studied to monitor the change in the structural properties of the AlAsSb epilayer. It was shown that the As incorporation in AlAsSb was higher than expected at high growth rate and under high Sb BEP condition. The results demonstrated that increasing the growth temperature while decreasing the As BEP did not significantly improve the crystal quality where the optimization of group-V/III BEP ratio and As BEP is effective to obtain AlAs0.08Sb0.92 on GaSb and enhance the crystal quality. The findings provide valuable insights into the growth dynamics of AlAsSb to achieve high quality and lattice-matched epilayers grown on GaSb which is well-suited for a range of optoelectronic applications.

Effect of As4 beam equivalent pressure on the growth dynamics of InAs films grown at low temperature on graphene layers

The present study investigates the growth of InAs films at low temperature on graphene synthesized via molecular beam epitaxy, emphasizing the effect of As4 beam equivalent pressure (5.0 × 10⁻6 Torr (low) and 4.5 × 10⁻⁵ (high)) on the growth dynamics. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy, along with correlation functions, revealed that monitoring the As4 beam equivalent pressure affects the structural properties of polycrystalline InAs films grown on the graphene/Si layer. The film thickness (particle size) was found to be 172 ± 10 nm and 216 ± 10 nm (40 ± 2 nm and 42 ± 2 nm) for the InAs layers grown at low and high As4 beam equivalent pressure. The increase in the film thickness and particle size with increasing the As4 beam equivalent pressure is attributed to improved material availability and surface kinetics due to the large migration energy of As compared to In and hence the larger diffusion length of In. Conversely, decreasing As4 beam equivalent pressure raises the roughness scaling exponent and enlarges interface width (0.17 µm and 0.31 µm for films grown at high and low As4 beam equivalent pressure) and lateral correlation length, implying smoother surfaces due to larger particles. These insights are pivotal for fabricating advanced semiconductors, underscoring As4 beam equivalent pressure's role in optimizing InAs films for electronic and optoelectronic applications.

Molecular beam epitaxy growth and characterization of GePb alloys

Pb based group-IV alloys such as GePb have been gaining interest as a potential alternative for infrared detectors, quantum materials, and high-speed electronic devices. Challenges remain in their growth due to the extremely low solid solubility of Pb in the Ge–Pb system. This paper reports molecular beam epitaxy growth of GePb alloy thin films on Ge(100) substrates. Effusion cells of Ge and Pb are used to control the flux ratio independently. The optimal substrate temperature is found to be near the thermocouple temperature of 300 °C based on the characterization of the grown films using high-resolution x-ray diffraction. A large change in the Ge:Pb beam equivalent pressure ratio from 10:1 to 1:1 results in only a minimal increase of the Pb composition from 0.74% to 2.84% as estimated from Raman spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. Scanning electron microscopy images show a large volume of Pb islands on the surface that form into either long trapezoidal rods or uniform droplets, with increasing Pb flux and growth time the density of Pb islands increased.

Investigation of Si incorporation in (010) β-Ga2O3 films grown by plasma-assisted MBE using diluted disilane as Si source and suboxide Ga2O precursor

Traditionally, elemental Ga and Si have been used to supply Ga and Si, respectively, in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to grow Si-doped β-Ga2O3. In this work, we investigated the feasibility of enhancing the β-Ga2O3 growth rate by using a Ga-suboxide precursor in a plasma-assisted MBE. Additionally, Si doping of β-Ga2O3 using diluted disilane and Ga-suboxide as the Si and Ga precursors, respectively, was studied. The growth rate and film quality under different suboxide fluxes were inspected. We found that Si concentration has an inverse relationship with Ga2O flux due to atom competition. A room-temperature mobility of 115 cm2/V s was measured for an electron concentration of 1.2 × 1017 cm−3 on the sample grown using a Ga2O beam equivalent pressure of 1.1 × 10−7 Torr and a disilane flow rate of 0.006 sccm. Temperature-dependent Hall characterization was performed on this sample, revealing compensating acceptor and neutral impurity densities of 2.70 × 1015 and 8.23 × 1017 cm−3, respectively.

Nanosecond recombination lifetimes and spin relaxation times in (110) InGaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells at room temperature

Quantum wells in InGaAs/AlGaAs with (110) orientation are attractive as active layers in spin-controlled lasers with circularly polarized emission, while the spin relaxation time is expected to be larger than for (100)-oriented layers. However, the hitherto reported recombination lifetimes (40 ps) and spin relaxation times (440 ps) of (110) InGaAs/AlGaAs structures are insufficient. Here it is shown that higher growth temperatures and higher V/III beam equivalent pressure ratios than previously used in crystal growth by molecular beam epitaxy lead to recombination and spin relaxation times in the nanosecond range at RT, meeting the requirements for application in spin lasers.

Low-temperature grown MnAs/InAs/MnAs double heterostructure on GaAs (111)B by molecular beam epitaxy

We used MBE to grow a double heterostructure of MnAs/InAs/MnAs on GaAs(111)B at low temperature for vertical spin FET applications. To confirm the ideal development environment, we primarily prepared single InAs thick layer (∼1.2 μm) at low growth temperature (∼250 °C) with varied V/III ratio (As/In = 2, 10, 20) due to the challenge of growing InAs at much lower temperature than its usual growth temperature (∼480 °C). We measured their structural and electrical properties and found an optimum condition at V/III ratio of 10. Afterwards, we prepared the double heterostructure at low temperature (∼250 °C), again varying the As/In beam equivalent pressure ratio to find its influence on the overall quality of the structure. Using atomic force microscopy, we observed the surface roughness variation corresponding to V/III ratio variation of InAs. We confirmed the growth of three individual thick layers of MnAs and InAs by cross-sectional analysis using scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Using a superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer, we found in-plane easy magnetization and observed the effect of top and bottom MnAs layers on the hysteresis curve. We also found the existence of ferromagnetic behavior of MnAs layers at RT MH measurements. The MnAs/InAs/MnAs double heterostructure on GaAs(111)B, in our opinion, has potential as a structure for spin FETs.

Optimized molecular beam epitaxy process for lattice-matched narrow-bandgap (0.8 eV) GaInNAsSb solar junctions

High performance narrow-bandgap GaInNAsSb solar cells are instrumental for the development of lattice-matched GaAs-based solar cells with more than four junctions. To this end a comprehensive optimization process including the effects of growth temperature, As/III beam equivalent pressure ratio, and Sb flux on the performance of 0.8 eV GaInNAsSb solar cells grown by molecular beam epitaxy is reported. For this, sets of GaInNAsSb p-i-n solar cell structures with 5–6% nitrogen compositions were fabricated, while varying the key growth parameters. The quantum efficiency and current generation increased significantly when the narrow gap materials were grown at elevated growth temperatures, close to phase separation. A further improvement in the current generation was observed by employing lower As/III beam equivalent pressure ratios. The best GaInNAsSb cell exhibited about 94% peak external quantum efficiency and generated a short-circuit current of 17.7 mA/cm 2 with AM1.5D (1000 W/m 2 ) illumination at wavelengths above 900 nm without employing a back surface reflector. Our analysis indicates that the best cell is already close to being absorption limited. While the N composition should be kept as low as possible (i.e., ≲5%) to achieve high performance, increasing the Sb flux generally results in improved the material quality, i.e., leading to a slight improvement for the open-circuit voltages and fill factors. In addition, it was found that the phase separation observed at the growth temperature of 480 °C could effectively be inhibited by employing higher Sb fluxes. • Optimized MBE growth for 0.8 eV GaInNAsSb solar junctions with 5–6% N content. • High current obtained using high growth temperatures and lower As pressures. • High peak external quantum efficiency of 94% demonstrated. • Background doping level as low as 1.1 × 10 15 cm −3 for GaInNAsSb with 6% N. • Phase separation is suppressed, and power output improved by optimizing Sb flux.

Study of the type-I to type-II band alignment transition in InAs(Sb)/GaAs quantum dot nanostructures

InAs(Sb)/GaAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) were grown by molecular beam epitaxy though incorporating Sb into InAs with increased beam equivalent pressure ratio, x = Sb2/(Sb2+As2), of x = 0, 0.15, 0.25, and 0.5. From photoluminescence measurements, we observed a transition of the band alignment from type-I for the InAs QDs to type-II for InAsSb QDs. Thus, after adding Sb into the QDs these type II InAsSb QDs have different characteristics from the well-studied type-I InAs QDs regarding to their excitation intensity dependence, temperature dependence, and time dependence of the luminescence. Additionally, the Sb distribution in the QDs and the wetting layer was studied. These results indicate that we are able to fabricate InAsSb QDs with a type II band alignment, which may be good optical materials for the development of intermediate-band photovoltaic cells.

(Invited) Molecular Beam Epitaxy and Dislocation Dynamics of Metamorphic Inassb for Long-Wavelength Infrared Applications

Long-wavelength infrared (IR) III-V based devices have long been of interest for potential applications such as chemical sensing and large format IR imaging. Within the III-V family, only the InAs1-xSbx bulk alloy in composition range 0.45 ≤ x ≤ 0.8, offers the required bandgap energy (Eg ) from 100 to 125 meV at an operating temperature of 80K and below [1]. Over this composition range however, the InAs1-xSbx lattice constant varies from 6.24 to 6.39 Å, where a lack of conventional substrates has restricted progress on the growth and study of this material system. To bridge this lattice-constant gap while maintaining relatively low defect densities, we employed a metamorphic step-graded InAs1-xSbx buffer on GaSb, enabling the study of low-Eg InAs1-xSbx as a function of growth conditions. Using this method, we investigated the effect of substrate temperature (Tsub ) and group V to group III flux ratio (beam equivalent pressure, V/III) on Sb incorporation of the lowest-Eg cap layer [2]. We also used x-ray reciprocal space mapping (RSM) to examine the effect of growth conditions on strain and dislocation dynamics. Following these growth studies, we employed the metamorphic InAs1-xSbx in an InAs/InAsSb superlattice designed with a cutoff wavelength of 9 µm which leads to improved absorption compared with the lattice-matched counterpart.We first grew, via molecular beam epitaxy, several InAs1-xSbx step-graded structures in which the Sb/(As+Sb) flux ratio was varied from 0.05 to 0.50 in 0.05 increments (see figure), under various Tsub and V/III. Nomarski imaging revealed smoother surfaces under a V/III=10, the highest ratio we attempted. At this higher V/III, we observed the cross-hatch morphology expected for metamorphic materials and found that the cross-hatch spacing changes, implying a change in dislocation dynamics, with Tsub . We then used photoluminescence (PL) to measure the Sb-content in the cap layer as well as compare intensities between samples. We found the highest Sb-incorporation to occur when Tsub =415 C and V/III=10, while the most intense samples used Tsub =415-430 C and V/III=10 [2].Using RSM along [110] with (004) and (115) reflections, we identified the Sb composition in each layer. This allowed comparison of Sb-content as a function of Sb/(As+Sb) for various Tsub and V/III. The results suggest that V/III has little effect on Sb incorporation, in direct conflict with our previous PL results [2]. To understand the discrepancy between PL and RSM, we measured (004) RSM of the same three samples with the x-ray beam incident along [1-10], revealing extremely different strain relaxation compared to the [110] case (see figure). Asymmetric strain relaxation has been observed in other III-V graded buffer systems and has been explained by different dislocation formation energies and glide velocities along each direction resulting from the core structure of the dislocation being terminated with either a group-III or a group-V element [3]. Transmission electron microscopy is ongoing to further understand the dislocation dynamics in these samples.Taking this all together allowed us to investigate the effect of substrate lattice-constant on strain-balanced InAs/InAsSb superlattices designed for 9 µm cutoff wavelength [4]. Theoretically, by using a larger substrate lattice-constant the superlattice design results in larger electron-hole wavefunction overlap, ultimately increasing photon absorption. Our experimental results confirm this theory, even in the presence of increased threading dislocations inherent to the required lattice-mismatch.[1] I. Vurgaftman et al. JAP 89, 5815-5875 (2001).[2] Tomasulo et al. J. Vac. Sci. and Technol. B 36, 02D108 (2018).[3] France et al. J. Appl. Phys. 107, 103530 (2010); Gelczuk et al., J. Cryst. Growth 310, 3014 (2008).[4] Affouda, Tomasulo et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 181107 (2017). Figure 1

(Invited) Vertical GaN Diodes: Effect of Growth Parameters, Indium Surfactants, and Device Development for High-Power Electronics

GaN has achieved widespread interest in high-power and high-speed electronics due to its wide-bandgap (WBG), large breakdown field, and high mobility compared to Si and SiC. There is also continued interest in the growth and development of GaN vertical devices owing to their advantageous properties of high current capability from backside ohmic, better field management, scaling feasibility, and enhanced thermal transport, which is not feasible with the lateral device topology. To realize the predicted high breakdown voltage and low on-resistance from vertical devices, high-quality drift layers with low unintentional doping and low compensating defects are fundamentally required. Hence, our research aims to pursue a comprehensive investigation of growth and device development with vertical GaN structures, building from the optimization of thick GaN homoepitaxy with high growth rate but low impurities, improving surface morphology using Indium as a surfactant as well as realizing punch-through field-plate p-n diodes to maximize the average electric field in high-voltage operation.Toward the goal of high-quality GaN epitaxy growth, we performed systematic studies of growth rate effects on the drift layer doping using ammonia molecular beam epitaxy (NH3 MBE) and plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA MBE) [1]. The NH3 MBE homoepitaxy GaN demonstrated an unintentional doping (UID) of ~1015 cm-3, significantly lower than that of the conventional metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) reports, which can be potentially contributed by clean growth environment of MBE.We further focused on improving surface morphology using Indium as a surfactant. Through a combination of varying V/III ratios, In flux and growth temperatures, an optimal condition for surface morphology, characterized by atomic force microscopy, was achieved for fast growth rates (on the order of 1 µm/hr and beam equivalent pressures on the order of 5 × 10-7 Torr). However, excessive indium causes the surface morphology to degrade, potentially due to the enhancement of the Ga desorption from the surface as a result of the reaction of indium with ammonia for high indium fluxes. The indium surfactant can also reduce silicon impurities as revealed from the Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) (Fig. 2).Subsequently, we developed vertical p-n GaN power devices using the NH3 MBE-grown high-quality epitaxy [2]. The vertical p-n GaN diode consisted (from bottom up): ~0.25 µm of n+ GaN ([Si]: 1×1019 cm-3) buffer, ~4 µm UID GaN drift layer for n-type region, ~0.4 µm p+GaN ([Mg]: 3×1019 cm-3) for p-type region, and ~10 nm p++ GaN cap ([Mg]: 3×1020 cm-3) to support the anode ohmic contact. Circular p-n diodes of 80-100 µm diameter were fabricated with Pd/Pt anode and a backside Ti/ Au ohmic contact. The field management was achieved by field-plate of 15 µm formed with Ti/Au metals on top of a field-plate dielectric of a Al2O3 (26 nm)/ Si3N4 (205 nm) stack (Fig. 3).The p-n GaN diodes exhibited an outstanding forward J-V behavior with a low specific on-resistance (Ron,sp) of 0.28 mΩ-cm2 and a minimum ideality factor of 1.36 (Fig. 4), which are among the best achieved in vertical homoepitaxy GaN p-n diodes [2-4]. The best diodes also exhibited a breakdown voltage of > 1 kV (equipment limit 1 kV). These reverse-voltage properties imply a punch-through characteristics with peak electric field (EC) >2.6 MV/cm, as revealed by Silvaco simulation (Fig. 5). The combination of >1 kV breakdown voltage and on-resistance of 0.28 mΩ-cm2 represents one of the best performances of the p-n GaN diodes, achieved with a significantly downscaled (~4 um) drift layer compared to the MOCVD GaN p-n diodes of ≥ 8 um (Fig. 6). Work is ongoing to develop NHE MBE p-n diodes with indium surfactant-assisted drift layer growth which will be promising to further improve the surface morphology, reduce leakage, and enhance breakdown performance of the vertical devices.

Indium as a surfactant: Effects on growth morphology and background impurity in GaN films grown by ammonia-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

We report on the improvement of the surface morphology of c-plane GaN films grown at high growth rates (∼1 µm/h) using ammonia molecular beam epitaxy through a series of growth optimizations as well as the introduction of indium as a surfactant. The indium surfactant was expected to help with the adatom mobility and, thus, provide smoother growth surfaces. Through a combination of varying V/III ratios, In flux, and growth temperatures, an optimal condition for surface morphology, characterized by atomic force microscopy, was achieved. At higher Ga fluxes for fast growth rates (∼1 µm/h and beam equivalent pressures of ∼5 × 10−7 Torr), higher ammonia flows were necessary to preserve the surface morphology. In addition, indium was an effective surfactant—reducing the roughness and improving the overall surface morphology. However, excessive indium causes the surface morphology to degrade, potentially due to the enhancement of the Ga desorption from the surface as a result of the reaction of indium with ammonia for high indium fluxes. The indium surfactant also resulted in a reduction of background Si impurity concentrations in the film. These effects allow for the growth of thick drift layers with low background dopant concentrations for vertical GaN power devices.

Growth of high material quality InAs/GaSb type-II superlattice for long-wavelength infrared range by molecular beam epitaxy

By optimizing the V/III beam-equivalent pressure ratio, a high-quality InAs/GaSb type-II superlattice material for the long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) range is achieved by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). High-resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer are used to characterize the material growth quality. The results show that the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the superlattice zero-order diffraction peak, the mismatching of the superlattice zero-order diffraction peak between the substrate diffraction peaks, and the surface roughness get the best results when the beam-equivalent pressure (BEP) ratio reaches the optimal value, which are 28 arcsec, 13 arcsec, and 1.63 Å, respectively. The intensity of the zero-order diffraction peak is strongest at the optimal value. The relative spectral response of the LWIR detector shows that it exhibits a 100% cut-off wavelength of 12.6 μm at 77 K. High-quality epitaxial materials have laid a good foundation for preparing high-performance LWIR detector.

Low threshold InAs-based interband cascade lasers grown by MBE

Mid-infrared interband cascade laser (ICL) structures aimed for emission at room temperature in the 4–5 μm wavelength region are grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on InAs substrates. High crystalline quality of the epitaxial structures has been confirmed by X-ray diffraction with thickness deviations less than 1% from the designs. Also, the average surface defect density is in the low ten to the fourth level. The broad-area (BA) devices made from the MBE-grown ICL wafers can lase in continuous wave (CW) mode in a wavelength range from 3.5 to 4.8 μm at temperatures up to 257 K, which is the highest reported for BA InAs-based ICLs at similar wavelengths. Their threshold current densities are low (e.g. 2.7 A/cm2 at 80 K), indicating excellent material quality with a very low Shockley-Reed-Hall recombination. In pulsed mode, the lowest threshold current density is 252 A/cm2 at 300 K, and the maximum operating temperature has reached 379 K. By comparisons in device performance among multiple MBE-grown ICL wafers, the importance of beam equivalent pressure stability and accurate control of layer thicknesses is demonstrated for the desirable performance.

Effect of MBE growth conditions on GaAsBi photoluminescence lineshape and localised state filling

A series of gallium arsenide bismide device layers covering a range of growth conditions are thoroughly probed by low-temperature, power-dependent photoluminescence measurements. The photoluminescence data is modelled using a localised state profile consisting of two Gaussians. Good agreement with the raw data is achieved for all layers whilst fixing the standard deviation values of the two Gaussians and constraining the band gap using X-ray diffraction data. The effects of growth temperature and bismuth beam equivalent pressure on the localised state distributions, and other model variables, are both shown to be linked to emission linewidth and device properties. It is concluded that bismuth rich surface conditions are preferable during growth in order to produce the narrowest emission linewidths with this material. These results also show how the growth mode of a gallium arsenide bismide layer can be inferred ex-situ from low-temperature photoluminescence measurements.

Improved growth quality of epitaxial ZnTe thin films on Si (111) wafer with ZnSe buffer layer

To achieve high-quality and low-cost ZnTe epitaxial films, a low-temperature (LT, 200 °C) ZnSe buffer layer with a thickness of 5 nm was grown on Si (111) wafers prior to the epitaxy of ZnTe layers by molecular beam epitaxy. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction patterns reveal that ZnTe epilayers grown at 335 °C with a thickness of 100 nm on the LT-ZnSe buffer layer present a completely two-dimensional growth mode. Film surfaces present smooth and flat morphology with the lowest surface roughness of ∼2.2 nm at a Te/Zn beam equivalent pressure ratio of 1.6. X-ray diffraction θ-2θ scanning indicates that the out-of-plane structure of ZnTe films is highly preferred with the (111) growth orientation of ZnSe/Si. X-ray diffraction φ scanning further confirms that the in-plane structure of ZnTe epilayer is also a single-crystal orientation growth. Thus, high-quality ZnTe (111) single-crystal epilayer with the lowest full-width at half-maximum of ∼200 arc sec and the smallest dislocation density of ∼1.12 × 108 cm−2 was grown on Si (111) wafers. In addition, the ZnSe buffer layer could alleviate the residual stress effectively for the heteroepitaxy of Si wafers. The most balanced residual stress for ZnTe/ZnSe/Si with σx of ∼96.5 MPa and σy of ∼94.2 MPa was obtained, which is essential for achieving high-performance and good mechanical properties of ZnTe-based devices.

Density-controlled growth of vertical InP nanowires on Si(111) substrates

A procedure to achieve the density-controlled growth of gold-catalyzed InP nanowires (NWs) on (111) silicon substrates using the vapor-liquid-solid method by molecular beam epitaxy is reported. We develop an effective and mask-free method based on controlling the number and the size of the Au-In catalyst droplets in addition to the conditions for the NW nucleation. We show that the NW density can be tuned with values in the range of 18 µm−2 to <0.1 µm−2 by the suitable choice of the In/Au catalyst beam equivalent pressure (BEP) ratio, by the phosphorous BEP and the growth temperature. The same degree of control is transferred to InAs/InP quantum dot-nanowires, taking advantage of the ultra-low density to study by micro-photoluminescence the optical properties of a single quantum dot-nanowires emitting in the telecom band monolithically grown on silicon. Optical spectroscopy at cryogenic temperature successfully confirmed the relevance of our method to excite single InAs quantum dots on the as-grown sample, which opens the path for large-scale applications based on single quantum dot-nanowire devices integrated on silicon..

Growth Control of High-Performance InAs/GaSb Type-II Superlattices via Optimizing the In/Ga Beam-Equivalent Pressure Ratio**Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2016YFB0402402 and 2016YFB0400601), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2015CB351902), the National Science and Technology Major Project (2018ZX01005101-010), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61835011 and U1431231), the

The performance of type-II superlattice (T2SL) long-wavelength infrared devices is limited by crystalline quality of T2SLs. We optimize the process of growing molecular beam epitaxy deposition T2SL epi-layers on GaSb (100) to improve the material properties. Samples with identical structure but diverse In/Ga beam-equivalent pressure (BEP) ratio are studied by various methods, including high-resolution x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. We find that appropriately increasing the In/Ga BEP ratio contributes to improving the quality of T2SLs, but too large In BEP will much more easily cause a local strain, which can lead to more InSb islands in the InSb interfaces. The InSb islands melt in the InSb interfaces caused by the change of chemical potential of In atoms may result in the “nail” defects covering the whole T2SLs, especially the interfaces of GaSb-on-InAs. When the In/Ga BEP ratio is about 1, the T2SL material possesses a lower full width at half maximum of +1 first-order satellite peak, much smoother surface and excellently larger area uniformity.

Influence of MBE growth parameters on GaSb/GaAs quantum dot morphology

Abstract In this paper, growth of self-assembled type-II GaSb/GaAs quantum dots by molecular beam epitaxy technique is presented. The effect of various growth parameters such as substrate temperature, Sb/Ga beam equivalent pressure ratio, growth rate and total mono-layer coverage on surface morphology is analyzed. The GaSb quantum dots exhibit high anisotropy along and directions under specific growth conditions. The anisotropy is discussed on the basis of incorporation of background Arsenic and anisotropic diffusion of Gallium adatoms on the GaSb surface. The low temperature photoluminescence measurements in GaAs capped samples show recombination in the type-II quantum dots and the wetting layer.

Ab initio study for adsorption-desorption behavior on InAs wetting layer surface grown on GaAs(001) substrate

• The growth of InAs on the c(4 × 4) surface at θ = 0.88 ML proceeds until θ = 1.13 ML. • For θ = 1.13 ML, the c(4 × 4) surface is transformed into the (2 × 4) surface. • The (2 × 4) surface with θ = 1.13 ML is transformed into the (2 × 4)α2 surface. • The formation of c(4 × 4) surface is important for the formation of (2 × 4)α2 surface. The structural change of InAs(001) wetting layer (WL) surface from c(4×4) to (2×4) surfaces is theoretically investigated by using ab initio -based approach incorporating temperature and beam equivalent pressure. The calculations of surface phase diagrams demonstrate that adsorption and desorption of In and As atoms occur on the c(4×4) surface with two In-As and As-As dimers at 703 K, resulting in the formation of the c(4×4) surface with InAs coverage θ = 1.13 monolayer (ML). For θ = 1.13 ML, it is also found that the total energy of the (2×4) surface, whose constituent atoms are same as those of the c(4×4) surface, is lower than that of the c(4×4) surface. This is because the number of excess electrons on the (2×4) surface is smaller than that on the c(4×4) surface. Furthermore, the adsorption of two In atoms and desorption of one As atom per unit cell occurs on the (2×4) surface, resulting in the formation of the (2×4)α2 surface. These calculated results suggest that the formation of the c(4×4) surface is of importance to understand the formation of (2×4)α2 InAs WL surface grown on the GaAs(001) substrate.