Control of structural defects in group III V N alloys grown on Si

Abstract

The key issues for growing III–V compound layers, free of structural defects, on Si substrates are clarified. The technologies for overcoming the fundamental problems have been developed. As a result, it has been clarified that dislocation-free III–V–N alloys can be grown on Si substrates whose lattice constants are matched to those of Si. Device structures of the GaAsPN/GaPN quantum well structure and the Si/GaPN/Si structure have been successfully grown on a Si (100) substrate covered with a thin GaP initial layer. The grown layers and hetero-interfaces contained no threading dislocations and no misfit dislocations, respectively. Neither stacking faults nor anti-phase domains were observed. A key issue for application to novel devices is the increase in nitrogen composition without degrading optical and electrical properties.