High-Quality InSb Grown on Semi-Insulting GaAs Substrates by Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition for Hall Sensor Application

High-quality InSb epilayers are grown on semi-insulting GaAs substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition using an indium pre-deposition technique. The influence of Ⅴ/Ⅲ ratio and indium pre-deposition time on the surface morphology, crystalline quality and electrical properties of the InSb epilayer is systematically investigated using Nomarski microscopy, atomic force microscopy, high-resolution x-ray diffraction, Hall measurement and contactless sheet resistance measurement. It is found that a 2-μm-thick InSb epilayer grown at 450℃ with a Ⅴ/Ⅲ ratio of 5 and an indium pre-deposition time of 2.5s exhibits the optimum material quality, with a root-meansquare surface roughness of only 1.2 nm, an XRD rocking curve with full width at half maximum of 358 arcsec and a room-temperature electron mobility of 4.6 × 10~4 cm~2/V·s. These values are comparable with those grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Hall sensors are fabricated utilizing a 600-nm-thick InSb epilayer. The output Hall voltages of these sensors exceed 10 mV with the input voltage of 1 V at 9.3 mT and the electron mobility of 3.2 × 10~4 cm~2/V·s is determined, which indicates a strong potential for Hall applications.