Formation of thin GaAs buffer layers on silicon for light-emitting devices

This paper presents the experimental results on research of growth processes of GaAs layers on silicon substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The formation of buffer Si layer in a single growth process has been found to significantly improve the crystalline quality of the GaAs layers formed on its surface, as well as to prevent the formation of anti-phase domains both on of fcutted towards the [110] direction and on singular Si(100) substrates. It has been demonstrated that the use of cyclic thermal annealing at temperatures 350–660°C in the flow of arsenic atoms makes it possible to reduce the number of threading dislocations and increase the smoothness of the GaAs layers surface. At the same time, the article considers possible mechanisms that lead to an improvement in the quality of the surface layers of GaAs. It is shown that the thus obtained GaAs layers of submicron thickness on the singular Si(100) substrates have a mean square value of surface roughness 1.9 nm. The principal possibility of using thin GaAs layers on silicon as templates for forming on them light-emitting semiconductor heterostructures with active area based on self-organizing InAs quantum dots and InGaAs quantum well is presented. They are shown to exhibit photoluminescence at 1.2 µm at room temperature.