European Researchers grow InGaN layers directly on Silicon by PA-MBE

Researchers from Spain, Germany and Italy grows InGaN layers grown directly on Silicon by PA-MBE.

Near-infrared emitting In-rich InGaN layers grown directly on Si: Towards the whole composition range

Pavel Aseev, Paul E. D. Soto Rodriguez, Víctor J. Gómez, Naveed ul Hassan Alvi1, José M. Mánuel, Francisco M. Morales, Juan J. Jiménez, Rafael García, Alexander Senichev, Christoph Lienau, Enrique Calleja and Richard Nötzel

Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 072102 (2015); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4909515

The authors report compact and chemically homogeneous In-rich InGaN layers directly grown on Si (111) by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. High structural and optical quality is evidenced by transmission electron microscopy, near-field scanning optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Photoluminescence emission in the near-infrared is observed up to room temperature covering the important 1.3 and 1.55 μm telecom wavelength bands. The n-InGaN/p-Si interface is ohmic due to the absence of any insulating buffer layers. This qualitatively extends the application fields of III-nitrides and allows their integration with established Si technology.

(a) HRTEM image of the In0.73Ga0.27N/SiNx/Si interface and (b) HAADF image of the InGaN layer, both taken along the [11–20] III-N zone axis. (c) Corresponding SEM image.