Growth and properties of InGaAs nanowires on silicon

Free‐standing ternary InGaAs nanowires (NW) are at the core of intense investigations due to their integration capabilities on silicon (Si) for next‐generation photovoltaics, integrated photonics, tunneling devices, and high‐performance gate all‐round III–V/Si NW transistors. In this review, recent progress on the growth, structural, optical and electrical properties of InGaAs NWs on Si substrate is highlighted. Particular focus is on a comparison between conventional catalyst‐assisted and catalyst‐free growth methods as well as self‐assembled versus site‐selectively grown NW arrays. It will be shown that catalyst‐free, high‐periodicity NW arrays with extremely high compositional uniformity are mandatory to allow un‐ambiguous structure–property correlation measurements. Here, interesting insights into the electronic/optical properties of wurtzite, zincblende and mixed crystal phases of InGaAs will be highlighted based on recent photoluminescence spectroscopy data. Finally, the InGaAs NW‐on‐Si system is also discussed in the realms of heterojunction properties, providing a promising system for steep‐slope tunneling field effect transistors in future low‐power post‐CMOS intergrated microelectronics and broad‐band photoabsorption and detec‐tion devices. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Growth and characterization of straight InAs/GaAs nanowire heterostructures on Si substrate

Vertical InAs/GaAs nanowire (NW) heterostructures with a straight InAs segment have been successfully fabricated on Si (111) substrate by using AlGaAs/GaAs buffer layers coupled with a composition grading InGaAs segment. Both the GaAs and InAs segments are not limited by the misfit strain induced critical diameter. The low growth rate of InAs NWs is attributed to the AlGaAs/GaAs buffer layers which dramatically decrease the adatom diffusion contribution to the InAs NW growth. The crystal structure of InAs NW can be tuned from zincblende to wurtzite by controlling its diameter as well as the length of GaAs NWs. This work helps to open up a road for the integration of high-quality III-V NW heterostructures with Si.     

Controlling growth density and patterning of single crystalline silicon nanowires

This study examines the usage of well-patterned Au nanoparticles (NPs) as a catalyst for one-dimensional growth of single crystalline Si nanowires (NWs) through the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism. The study reports the fabrication of monolayer Au NPs through the self-assembly of Au NPs on a 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS)-modified silicon substrate. Results indicate that the spin coating time of Au NPs plays a crucial role in determining the density of Au NPs on the surface of the silicon substrate and the later catalysis growth of Si NWs. The experiments in this study employed optical lithography to pattern Au NPs, treating them as a catalyst for Si NW growth. The patterned Si NW structures easily produced and controlled Si NW density. This approach may be useful for further studies on single crystalline Si NW-based nanodevices and their properties.     

Critical diameters and temperature domains for MBE growth of III–V nanowires on lattice mismatched substrates

We report on the growth properties of InAs, InP and GaAs nanowires (NWs) on different lattice mismatched substrates, in particular, on Si(111), during Au‐assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). We show that the critical diameter for the epitaxial growth of dislocation‐free III–V NWs decreases as the lattice mismatch increases and equals 24 nm for InAs NWs on Si(111), 39 nm for InP NWs on Si(111), 44 nm for InAs NWs on GaAs(111)B, and 110 nm for GaAs NWs on Si(111). When the diameters exceed these critical values, the NWs are dislocated or do not grow at all. The corresponding temperature domains for NW growth extend from 320 °C to 340 °C for InAs NWs on Si(111), 330 °C to 360 °C for InP NWs on Si(111), 370 °C to 420 °C for InAs NWs on GaAs(111)B and 380 °C to 540 °C for GaAs NWs on Si(111). Experimental values for critical diameters are compared to the previous findings and are discussed within the frame of a theoretical model. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Passivation of defect states in Si-based and GaAs structures

Formation of defect states on semiconductor surfaces, at its interfaces with thin films and in semiconductor volumes is usually predetermined by such parameters as semiconductor growth process, surface treatment procedures, passivation, thin film growth kinetics, etc. This paper presents relation between processes leading to formation of defect states and their passivation in Si and GaAs related semiconductors and structures. Special focus is on oxidation kinetics of yttrium stabilized zirconium/SiO₂/Si and Sm/GaAs structures. Plasma anodic oxidation of yttrium stabilized zirconium based structures reduced size of polycrystalline silicon blocks localised at thin film/Si interface. Samarium deposited before oxidation on GaAs surface led to elimination of EL2 and/or ELO defects in MOS structures. Consequently, results of successful passivation of deep traps of interface region by CN⁻ atomic group using HCN solutions on oxynitride/Si and double oxide layer/Si structures are presented and discussed. By our knowledge, we are presenting for the first time the utilization of X-ray reflectivity method for determination of both density of SiO₂ based multilayer structure and corresponding roughnesses (interfaces and surfaces), respectively.     

Controllable hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO nanowires arrays on Al-doped ZnO seed layer and patterning of ZnO nanowires arrays via surface modification of substrate

ZnO nanowire (NW) arrays are assembled on the Al-doped ZnO (AZO) seed layer by a hydrothermal process. Effects of the temperature and growth time of the hydrothermal process on morphological and photoluminescence properties of the as-assembled ZnO NW arrays are characterized and studied. Results indicate that the length and diameter of the ZnO NWs increase with a lengthening of the growth time at 80 °C and the hydrothermal temperature has a significant effect on the growth rate and the photoluminescence properties of the ZnO NW arrays. The patterned AZO seed layer is fabricated on a silicon substrate by combining a sol-gel process with an electron-beam lithography process, as well as a surface fluorination technique, and then the ZnO NW arrays are selectively grown on those patterned regions of the AZO seed layer by the hydrothermal process. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectra of the patterned ZnO NW arrays shows that only a strong UV emission at about 380 nm is observed, which implies that few crystal defects exist inside the as-grown ZnO NW arrays.     

Effect of heat and time-period on the growth of ZnO nanorods by sol–gel technique

Sol–gel routes to metal oxide nanoparticles in organic solvents under exclusion of water have become a versatile alternative to aqueous methods. We focus on the preparation of well-aligned ZnO nanorod arrays using non-aqueous sol–gel synthesis route, where ZnO nanorods arrays have been grown on glass substrates. This work provides a systematic study of controlled morphology and crystallinity of ZnO nanorod arrays. The investigation demonstrates that the synthesis process conditions of ZnO thin film have strong influences on the morphology and crystallinity of the ZnO nanorod arrays grown thereon, where non-aqueous process offers the possibility of better understanding and controlling the reaction pathways on the molecular level, enabling the synthesis of nanomaterials with high crystallinity and well-defined, uniform particle morphologies. Here the annealing temperature plays an important role on the growth of nanostructures of the ZnO grains and nanorod arrays. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image shows that the growth of ZnO nanorod arrays are high-quality single crystals growing along the c-axis perpendicular to the substrates. A detailed analysis of the growth characteristics of ZnO nanostructures as functions of growth time is also reported.     

Optical properties of undoped,Be-doped,and Si-doped wurtzite-rich GaAs nanowires grown on Si substrates by molecular beam epitaxy

The photoluminescence (PL) of undoped, Si-doped, and Be-doped GaAs nanowires (NWs) grown on Si substrates by molecular beam epitaxy was investigated. PL peaks of the undoped and Be-doped NWs were observed at higher energies than the bandgap energy of GaAs bulk. According to X-ray diffraction analysis, the blue-shift is attributed to the wurtzite-rich GaAs NW structure. Impurity-related peaks were observed in the undoped NWs and the impurity was Si that diffused via interaction with the adatoms on the Si surface during the growth. A slight bandgap narrowing of the Be-doped GaAs NWs was observed from their PL spectra. The Si-doped NWs showed a very broad PL peak due to a larger density of Si-related defects originating from the heavy doping level. The dependence of the PL peaks of the NWs on temperature was also investigated.     

Carrier injection at silicide/silicon interfaces in nanowire based-nanocontacts

In this article, we investigate the silicide/Si nanowire (Si NW) interface properties based on a detailed characterization of PtSi/NW nanocontacts. For that purpose, we fabricate two-terminal structures implemented on vertical Si NWs arrays defined by a top-down approach with an ultra-high density. Each termination of Si NWs is silicided and contacted to an external metal line. The temperature dependence and the non-linearity of current–voltage (I–V) characteristics are identified as a clear signature indicating that contacts dominate the overall resistance of the Si NW arrays. It is demonstrated that this trend remains valid in the limit of extremely small NW radii and that trap-induced surface depletion also reduces the contact injection cross-section. In this context, the electrostatic landscape at the vicinity of the silicide-to-semiconductor contact interface is dominated by the field effect imposed by peripheral surface states and not by the Schottky barrier height.     

One-dimensional single (In,Ga)As quantum dot arrays formed by self-organized anisotropic strain engineering

Well-defined one-dimensional single (In,Ga)As quantum dot (QD) arrays have been successfully formed on planar singular GaAs (1 0 0) in molecular beam epitaxy by self-organized anisotropic strain engineering of an (In,Ga)As/GaAs quantum wire (QWR) superlattice (SL) template. The distinct stages of template formation, which govern the uniformity of the QD arrays, are directly imaged by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The AFM results reveal that excess strain accumulation causes fluctuations of the QWR template and the QD arrays. By reducing the amount of (In,Ga)As and increasing the GaAs separation layer thickness in each SL period, the uniformity of the QD arrays dramatically improves. The single QD arrays are straight over more than 1 μm and extended to 10 μm length. Capped QD arrays show clear photoluminescence emission up to room temperature.     

Effect of the substrate pretreatment on the epitaxial growth of indium nitride

The influence of the substrate pretreatment on crystallinity of indium nitride films grown on (1 1 1)GaAs by radio frequency sputtering were investigated. It was shown that the crystalline quality of InN layers grown on GaAs can be improved by presputtering the substrate in nitrogen plasma prior to the growth. By Auger electron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy analysis we revealed that GaN islands form on the surface of GaAs substrate due to the presputtering. The optimum presputtering time for growing InN single crystal was assessed to be the time at which GaN islands cover the substrate surface entirely.     

沉积速率和生长停顿对InAs/GaAs量子点超晶格生长影响的综合分析

采用动力学蒙特卡罗模型模拟了沉积速率和生长停顿对GaAs衬底中垂直耦合InAs 量子点超晶格生长早期阶段的影响.通过对生长表面形态、岛平均尺寸、岛尺寸分布及其标准差等方面的研究,发现综合控制沉积速率和生长停顿时间能够得到大小均匀、排列有序的岛阵列.这对后续量子点超晶格生长过程中量子点的定位有重要影响. 关键词： 动力学蒙特卡罗模拟 量子点超晶格 外延生长     

Growth and properties of GaAs and GaN films and low-dimensional GaAs/QWsInGaAs structures on Si substrates with a Ge buffer layer

The conditions for producing mirror-smooth Ge buffer layers of uniform size on Si(100) and Si(111) substrates by means of hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HW-CVD) at a low temperature (350°C) are determined. Single-crystal GaN and GaAs films and low-dimensional GaAs/QWInGaAs/ GaAs/QWInGaAs/GaAs/Ge/Si structures of uniform smoothness are obtained via MOVPE at reduced pressures. Their quantum wells are found to be characterized by intense photoluminescence comparable in intensity to that produced on GaAs substrates.     

Atomic hydrogen induced step bunching and fabrication of quantum wire arrays on GaAs（311） A Substrate by molecular eam epitaxy

Atomic hydrogen assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is a novel type of epitaxial growth of nanostructures. The GaAs (311)A surface naturally forms one-dimensional step arrays by step bunching along the direction of 〈-233〉 and the space period is around 40nm. The step arrays extend over several μm without displacement. The InGaAs quantum wire arrays are grown on the step arrays as the basis. Our results may prompt further development of more uniform quantum wire and quantum dot arrays.     

Light trapping and optical absorption enhancement in vertical semiconductor Si/SiO_2 nanowire arrays

The full potential of optical absorption property must be further cultivated before silicon(Si) semiconductor nanowire(NW) arrays become available for mainstream applications in optoelectronic devices. In this paper, we demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically that an SiO_2 coating can substantially improve the absorption of light in Si NW arrays.When the transparent SiO_2 shell is coated on the outer layer of Si NW, the incident light penetrates better into the absorbing NW core. We provide the detailed theoretical analysis by a combination of finite-difference time-domain(FDTD) analysis.It is demonstrated that increasing the thickness of the dielectric shell, we achieve 1.72 times stronger absorption in the NWs than in uncoated NWs.     

A3B5 nanowhiskers: MBE growth and properties

The structural properties of GaAs nanowhiskers (NWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are investigated. Under optimal growth conditions, the aspect ratio of MBE grown GaAs NWs is higher than 100. The maximum length of NWs is several times (up to 10) larger than the effective thickness of deposited GaAs. A kinetic model of the diffusion-induced NW rowth is used to predict the dependence of NW length on the technologically controlled MBE growth conditions. The obtained results demonstrate that the NW growth is controlled by the adatom diffusion towards their tip rather than by the conventional vapor-liquid-solid mechanism. The growth conditions influence on the NW morphology may be used for the controlled fabrication of NWs by MBE for different applications. Presented at the X-th Symposium on Suface Physics, Prague, Czech Republic, July 11–15, 2005.     

Modified dislocation filter method: toward growth of GaAs on Si by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

In this paper, metamorphic growth of GaAs on (001) oriented Si substrate, with a combination method of applying dislocation filter layer (DFL) and three-step growth process, was conducted by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. The effectiveness of the multiple InAs/GaAs self-organized quantum dot (QD) layers acting as a dislocation filter was researched in detail. And the growth conditions of the InAs QDs were optimized by theoretical calculations and experiments. A 2-μm-thick buffer layer was grown on the Si substrate with the three-step growth method according to the optimized growth conditions. Then, a 114-nm-thick DFL and a 1-μm-thick GaAs epilayer were grown. The results we obtained demonstrated that the DFL can effectively bend dislocation direction via the strain field around the QDs. The optimal structure of the DFL is composed of three-layer InAs QDs with a growth time of 55 s. The method could reduce the etch pit density from about 3 × 10⁶ cm^?2 to 9 × 10⁵ cm^?2 and improve the crystalline quality of the GaAs epilayers on Si.     

拉曼-光荧光光谱热壁外延生长GaAs/Si薄膜晶体质量研究

本文研究了用热壁外延（HWE）技术在Si衬底上,不同工艺条件生长的GaAs薄膜的拉曼（Raman)和光荧光（PL）光谱。研究表明,在室温下,GaAs晶膜的拉曼光谱的265cm^-1模声子（TO）峰和290cm^-1纵声子（LO）峰的峰值和面积之比随晶膜质量的变化而逐渐变大,FWHM变窄且峰值频移变小,而PL光谱出现在900nm光谱的FWHM较窄,这表明所测得的薄膜为单晶晶膜,在另外一些工艺条件下生长的GaAs薄膜拉曼光谱峰形好,但测不出PL光谱,所生的膜不是单晶,同时对同一晶膜也可判断出其均匀程度,因此我们可以通过拉曼光谱和荧光光谱相结合评定外延膜晶体质量。     

Pulsed laser deposition of uniform semiconductor nanodot arrays

Uniform arrays of silicon (Si), gallium arsenide (GaAs) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanodots have been deposited using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique combined with a contact mask consisting of nano-holes fabricated by E-beam lithography (EBL). These nanocrystalline semiconductor nanodots have been deposited by PLD on Si and GaAs substrates at room temperature. Characterization of the nanodots has been carried out using different techniques including X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), and Raman spectroscopy. This work demonstrates a novel technique for deposition of uniform array of semiconductor nanostructures using a contact mask at room temperature for photonic applications.     

Intervalley Γ- X Deformation Potentials in Ⅲ-V Zincblende and Si Semiconductors by Ab Initio Pseudopotential Calculations

Intervalley Γ- X deformation potential constants (IVDP's) have been calculated by first principle pseudopotential method for the Ⅲ-V zincblende semiconductors Alp, AlAs, AlSb, Gap, GaAs, GaSb, InP, ZnAs and ZnSb. As a pro to type crystal we have also carried out calculations on Si. When comparing the calculated IVDP's of LA phonon for Gap, InP and InAs and LO phonon for AlAs, AlSb, GaAs, GaSb and InSb with a previous calculation by EPM in rigid approximation, good agreements are found. However, our ab initio pseudopotential results of LA phonon for AlAs, AlSb, GaAs, GaSb and InSb and LO phonon for Gap, InP and ZnAs are about one order of magnitude smaller than those obtained by EPM calculations, which indicate that the electron redistributions upon the phonon deformations may be important in affecting Γ- X intervalley shatteri'ngs for these phonon modes when the anions are being displaced. In our calculations the phonon modes of LA and LO at X point have been evaluated in frozen phonon approximation. We have obtained, at the same time, the LAX and LOX phonon frequencies for these materials from total energy calculations. The calculated phonon frequencies agree very well with experimental values for these semiconductors.