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)     

金辅助催化方法制备GaAs和GaAs/InGaAs纳米线结构的形貌表征及生长机理研究

利用金（Au）辅助催化的方法,通过金属有机化学气相沉积技术制备了GaAs纳米线及GaAs/InGaAs纳米线异质结构.通过对扫描电子显微镜（SEM）测试结果分析,发现温度会改变纳米线的生长机理,进而影响形貌特征.在GaAs纳米线的基础上制备了高质量的纳米线轴、径向异质结构,并对生长机理进行分析.SEM测试显示,GaAs/InGaAs异质结构呈现明显的“柱状”形貌与衬底垂直,InGaAs与GaAs段之间的界面清晰可见.通过X射线能谱对异质结样品进行了线分析,结果表明在GaAs/InGaAs轴向纳米线异质结构样品中,未发现明显的径向生长.从生长机理出发分析了在GaAs/InGaAs径向纳米线结构制备过程中伴随有少许轴向生长的现象.     

InAs/GaAs和InAs/InxGa1-xAs/GaAs纳米线异质结构的生长研究

利用金辅助金属有机化学气相沉淀法(MOCVD)在GaAs(111)B衬底上分别制备了InAs/GaAs和InAs/In _{x Ga1-xAs/GaAs(0≤x≤1)纳米线异质结构.实验结果显示,直接生长在GaAs纳米线上的InAs纳米线生长方向杂乱或者沿着GaAs纳米线侧壁向衬底方向生长,生长的含有In x Ga1-xAs组分渐变缓冲段的InAs/In x Ga1-x关键词： 纳米线异质结构 xGa1-xAs')" href="#">InxGa1-xAs 组分渐变缓冲层 金属有机化学气相沉淀法}     

Heteroepitaxial III–V films on fianite substrates and buffer layers

GaAs, GaSb, AlGaAs, and InGaAs epitaxial films and multilayer AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs heterostructures for PHEMT field-effect transistors have been obtained on fianite substrates by metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy. Films of different III–V compounds, including GaN, were grown on Si and GaAs substrates with a simple single buffer layer (fianite) and double buffer layer (fianite on porous Si and GaAs). It is established that the use of a two-layer buffer improves the structural quality and homogeneity of III–V films. A possibility of controlling the phase composition of GaN films using a corresponding buffer layer is shown. It is found that the use of a two-layer buffer increases the electrical homogeneity and decreases the electrical activity of defects in GaN films.     

Proton radiation effect on GaAs/AlGaAs core–shell ensemble nanowires photo-detector

We demonstrate that the GaAs/AlGaAs nanowires(NWs) ensemble is fabricated into photo-detectors. Current–voltage(I–V) characteristics are measured on Ga As/Al Ga As core–shell ensemble NW photo-detectors at room-temperature before and after 1-MeV proton irradiation with fluences from 1.0 × 10~(13) cm~(-2) to 5.0 × 10~(14) cm~(-2). The degradation of photocurrent suggests that the point defects induced by proton radiation could cause both carrier lifetime and carrier mobility to decrease synchronously. Comparing with a GaAs quantum well, the degradations of light and dark current for the irradiated NWs photo-detector indicate that NWs material is a preferable potential candidate for space applications.     

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.     

Self-catalytic growth of horizontal and straight Si nanowires on Si substrates using a sputter deposition technique

We report on the growth of horizontal and straight Si nanowires (NWs) on Si substrate using sputter deposition of the Si layer followed by thermal annealing at 1000 °C and above. The growth of horizontal NWs was achieved without the use of any metal catalyst. Uniform cylindrical shaped Si NWs with a diameter in the range of 50–60 nm and a length of up to 8 μm were synthesized. The as-synthesized Si NWs have a Si core covered with a thin amorphous native oxide layer, as revealed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy. The aspect ratio of these Si NWs is in the range of 100–160. Micro-Raman studies on the NWs reveal a tensile strain on the Si NW core due to presence of a thin oxide layer. From the Raman shift, we calculate a strain of 1.0% for the catalyst free Si NW. FTIR analysis indicates the presence of interstitial oxygen atoms in the Si NWs, as expected from oxidation of Si NWs. For comparison, metal catalyst (Au) assisted Si NWs have also been grown on Si(100) substrate by a similar process. These NWs have a similar diameter and a marginally higher aspect ratio. A model for the growth mechanism of horizontal NWs is presented. This represents one of the first examples of direct horizontal growth of straight Si NWs on commonly used Si substrates suitable for nanoelectronic device fabrication.     

Growth of high-crystallinity uniform GaAs nanowire arrays by molecular beam epitaxy

The self-catalyzed growth of Ga As nanowires(NWs) on silicon(Si) is an effective way to achieve integration between group III–V elements and Si. High-crystallinity uniform Ga As NW arrays were grown by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy(MBE). In this paper, we describe systematic experiments which indicate that the substrate treatment is crucial to the highly crystalline and uniform growth of one-dimensional nanomaterials. The influence of natural oxidation time on the crystallinity and uniformity of Ga As NW arrays was investigated and is discussed in detail. The Ga As NW crystallinity and uniformity are maximized after 20 days of natural oxidation time. This work provides a new solution for producing high-crystallinity uniform III–V nanowire arrays on wafer-scale Si substrates. The highly crystalline uniform NW arrays are expected to be useful for NW-based optical interconnects and Si platform optoelectronic devices.     

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.     

Theoretical investigations on the formation of wurtzite segments in group III-V semiconductor nanowires

Structural trends in group III-V semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are systematically investigated based on Monte-Carlo simulations using our empirical potential calculations. The calculated NW stacking sequences for the selective area growth demonstrate that the averaged periodicity between wurtzite segments, which is independent of the NW size, decreases with increasing ionicity of semiconductors f_i. It is also found that the periodicity is affected by the nucleus size of NWs: The calculated periodicity in InP (InAs) NWs with the nucleus size consisting of ∼ 10 atoms are 0.76 (0.86) nm, reasonably consistent with the experimentally reported one. On the other hand, the nucleus size to reproduce the experimentally reported periodicity in GaAs NWs is estimated to be more than 70 atoms. These results thus imply that the nucleus size as well as f_i is of importance in determining the averaged periodicity between wurtzite segments.     

Self-connected horizontal silicon nanowire field effect transistor

We propose a technique to fabricate self-connected horizontal Si nanowire (NW) field effect transistors (FETs) by a self-assembly mechanism. We show direct growth of Si NWs between two predefined metallic electrodes along the SiO₂ gate oxide using the vapour–liquid–solid (VLS) growth mode. In our approach, the gold catalyst layer is covered by the contact metal, giving rise to selective and localized catalytic activity and growth of NWs from the gold edges. The diameter of the NWs can be adjusted by the thickness of the catalyst layer. Using such a process, we demonstrate field effect operation on the conductivity of a non-intentionally doped 20 nm diameter Si NW. This technique can be implemented in three dimensions, paving the way to three-dimensionalD integration using vertical stacks of self-connected FETs.     

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.     

Influence of elastic strains in sublayers on the critical thickness of the Stranski-Krastanow transition for the GeSi/Si(001) system

A novel estimation of the critical thickness of the epitaxial layer in the Stranski-Krastanow (SK) transition is proposed. The transition criterion is based on accumulation of the energy of the effective strain up to a certain critical value. The calculation includes the elastic energy stored in elastically strained layers, takes into account the restriction on the depth of the strained layer still affecting the transition, and a segregation effect described by thermally activated atomic exchange. The equations of growth on the vicinal substrate surface that divide each monolayer into submonolayers parallel to the surface are used. Simulation results are compared with the corresponding experimental data for the heterostructures built of a strained sublayer covered by a spacer layer on which a wetting layer is deposited until the SK transition occurs. The Ge/Si structures of this type are grown by molecular beam epitaxy, and in addition, the experimental results for InAs/GaAs systems, published in the literature, are used. A comparison of experimental and calculated data on the dependence between the critical thickness of the wetting layer and the thickness of the spacer layer shows good agreement for both Ge/Si and InAs/GaAs systems.     

Stacking-faults-free zinc blende GaAs/AlGaAs axial heterostructure nanowires during vapor-liquid-solid growth

Pure zinc blende structure GaAs/AlGaAs axial heterostructure nanowires (NWs) are grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition on GaAs(111) B substrates using Au-catalyzed vapor-liquid-solid mechanism.Al adatom enhances the influence of diameters on NWs growth rate.NWs are grown mainly through the contributions from the direct impingement of the precursors onto the alloy droplets and not so much from adatom diffusion.The results indicate that the droplet acts as a catalyst rather than an adatom collector.     

Intense terahertz emission from undoped GaAs/n-type GaAs and?InAs/AlSb structures grown on Si substrates in the transmission-geometry excitation

Intense terahertz radiation was generated from femtosecond laser-irradiated InAs and GaAs layers on Si substrates. Results show that InAs/Si and GaAs/Si films can be excited in reflection and transmission geometries. The InAs/Si film exhibited weaker emission for both excitation cases but it will be more feasible as a spectroscopic THz source due to the absence of complex spectral features in its emission spectrum. The GaAs/Si emission is characterized by Fabry?CPerot oscillations but it is 90% of that of p-InAs bulk crystal emission intensity in the reflection geometry. Excitation fluence measurements showed that the InAs/Si film saturates easily due to the laser??s shallow penetration depth in InAs.     

Morphology of Si nanowires fabricated by laser ablation using gold catalysts

Si nanowires (NWs) were fabricated successfully by laser ablation using Au as catalyst. Si wafers were used as the collector. The diameters of Si NWs ranged from 20 to 150 nm. Different forms of Si NWs were observed at different local sites inside a furnace: Si NWs with a high aspect ratio of length to diameter, Si NWs with defects and Si NWs with Au-containing nanoparticles being embedded. Especially, a nano-particle embedded Si NW is a new nanostructure that is observed for the first time. PACS 81.07.-b; 81.07.Bc; 81.16.-c; 81.20.-n     

Structural and optical properties of a catalyst-free GaAs/AlGaAs core–shell nano/microwire grown on (1 1 1)Si substrate

Heterostructure in the catalyst-free GaAs nanowire grown on the Si substrate was studied for the application of optical devices in the next generation. We fabricated AlGaAs/GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well (QW) structure on the side facet of the catalyst-free GaAs nanowire grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The cathode luminescence (CL) measurement showed that the uniform GaAs quantum well was formed between AlGaAs shell layers. On the basis of this structure, we also grew the thick AlGaAs shell layers (∼700 nm) on GaAs nanowires, and observed whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonant in the thick AlGaAs hexagonal structure.     

Simulation of growth of silicon nanowhiskers with Ge-Si heterojunctions

The process of formation of Si-Ge heterostructures based on nanowhiskers (NWs) grown according to the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism is studied using the Monte Carlo simulation. It is found that, during growth of axial heterojunctions (HJs), it is impossible to obtain an atomically flat Si-Ge HJ, which is related to a gradual change in the catalyst-drop composition during the switch between fluxes. The dependence of the composition of the Ge _x Si_{1 − x} transition layer on the ratio of fluxes and on the Ge and Si deposition time is studied. It is found that the width of the axial Si-Ge HJs depends on the NW diameter. It depends linearly on the diameter under the adsorption-induced growth conditions and decreases with increasing diameter under the diffusion-induced growth conditions. This means that, as the NW thickness decreases, abrupt HJs in the Ge-Si system can be obtained only in the case of chemical-vapor-deposition growth in which the diffusion-induced growth component is insignificant.     

Quantum Hall effect-insulator transition in the InAs/GaAs system with quantum dots

The InAs/GaAs structures consisting of quantum-dot layers with electronic properties typical of two-dimensional systems are investigated. It is found that, at a low concentration of charge carriers, the variable-range-hopping conductivity is observed at low temperatures. The localization length corresponds to characteristic quantum-dot cluster sizes determined using atomic-force microscopy (AFM). The quantum Hall effect-insulator transition induced by a magnetic field occurs in InAs/GaAs quantum-dot layers with metallic conductivity. The resistivities at the transition point exceed the resistivities characteristic of electrons in heterostructures and quantum wells. This can be explained by the large-scale fluctuations of the potential and, hence, the electron density.