Quantitative evaluation of microtwins and antiphase defects in GaP/Sinanolayers for a III–V photonics platform on siliconusing a laboratory Xray diffraction setup

Yanping Wang (1) , Antoine Létoublon (1) , Thanh Tra Nguyen (2) , Mounib Bahri (3) , Ludovic Largeau (3) , Gilles Patriarche (3) , Charles Cornet (1) , Nicolas Bertru (1) , Alain Le Corre (1) , Olivier Durand (1)

1 FOTON - Fonctions Optiques pour les Technologies de l'informatiON
2 NEEL - CRG - CRG & Grands instruments
3 LPN - Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures

This study is carried out in the context of III–V semiconductor monolithic integration on silicon for optoelectronic device applications. X-ray diffraction is combined with atomic force microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy for structural characterization of GaP nanolayers grown on Si. GaP has been chosen as the interfacial layer, owing to its low lattice mismatch with Si. But, microtwins and antiphase boundaries are still difficult to avoid in this system. Absolute quantification of the microtwin volume fraction is used for optimization of the growth procedure in order to eliminate these defects. Lateral correlation lengths associated with mean antiphase boundary distances are then evaluated. Finally, optimized growth conditions lead to the annihilation of antiphase domains within the first 10 nm.

Keywords: GaP/ Si nanolayers; antiphase defects; laboratory X-ray diffraction; microtwins; semiconductors

Domains: Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Yanping Wang, Antoine Létoublon, Thanh Tra Nguyen, Mounib Bahri, Ludovic Largeau, et al.. Quantitative evaluation of microtwins and antiphase defects in GaP/Sinanolayers for a III–V photonics platform on siliconusing a laboratory Xray diffraction setup. Journal of Applied Crystallography, 2015, 48 (3), pp.702-710. ⟨10.1107/S1600576715009954⟩. ⟨hal-01157811⟩