Compliant substrate technology: Integration of mismatched materials for opto-electronic applications

A critical review of the literature on compliant substrates, together with our own findings, is presented. Fabrication of various compliant substrate types are compared and the difficulties are discussed, with the main focus on the twist-bonded compliant substrates. Water bonding, which is the key technology to prepare compliant substrates, either directly or using an intermediate layer, will be specifically overviewed. Since compliant substrates are generally used for the growth of device-quality highly mismatched materials on dissimilar substrates, the different models extending the critical thickness are discussed. Our work, which focuses on twist-bonded GaAs compliant substrates prepared by MOVPE (Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy), will be presented and the results will be interpreted and compared with the current knowledge on compliant substrates. Finally, preliminary photodetector and laser diode devices realized on compliant substrates results, will be presented.