Microgravity-enabled growth of uniform InAsSb bulk single crystal

The growth of compositionally uniform InAs<sub>1-x</sub>Sb<sub>x</sub> bulk crystals remains a formidable challenge due to severe solute segregation and morphological instability under terrestrial conditions. Here, we report the successful growth of a single-crystalline InAs<sub>0.933</sub>Sb<sub>0.067</sub> alloy (x = 6.7 mol%) on an InAs seed via the vertical gradient freeze method aboard the China Space Station. Crucially, microgravity enables diffusion-dominated solidification by suppressing buoyancy-driven convection. As a direct consequence, the crystal is free of macroscopic voids and striations, exhibits a tenfold reduction in dislocation density, and maintains Sb compositional uniformity (±0.5 mol%) over its entire ~11 mm diameter and ~2.5 mm growth length. Moreover, the microgravity-grown crystal outperforms its terrestrial counterpart in both crystalline quality and electrical properties. These findings highlight that microgravity provides a unique pathway to overcome the intrinsic limitations of ground-based growth, enabling crystal quality unattainable on Earth - with potential relevance to advanced optoelectronic applications.

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Publication Details

Journal
npj Microgravity
Published
2026-02-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-026-00581-5
Primary Topic
Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Microgravity-enabled growth of uniform InAsSb bulk single crystal

Dianchen Zhu, Zhengchang Xia, Huaiwen Zheng, Yin Zhigang et al.
npj Microgravity
Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices
article

Microgravity-enabled growth of uniform InAsSb bulk single crystal

Dianchen Zhu, Zhengchang Xia, Huaiwen Zheng, Yin Zhigang, Meibo Tang, Xuechao Liu, Jinliang Wu, Ji Jiang, Jidong Huang, Xingwang Zhang, Xiuhong Pan
article en

Abstract

The growth of compositionally uniform InAs<sub>1-x</sub>Sb<sub>x</sub> bulk crystals remains a formidable challenge due to severe solute segregation and morphological instability under terrestrial conditions. Here, we report the successful growth of a single-crystalline InAs<sub>0.933</sub>Sb<sub>0.067</sub> alloy (x = 6.7 mol%) on an InAs seed via the vertical gradient freeze method aboard the China Space Station. Crucially, microgravity enables diffusion-dominated solidification by suppressing buoyancy-driven convection. As a direct consequence, the crystal is free of macroscopic voids and striations, exhibits a tenfold reduction in dislocation density, and maintains Sb compositional uniformity (±0.5 mol%) over its entire ~11 mm diameter and ~2.5 mm growth length. Moreover, the microgravity-grown crystal outperforms its terrestrial counterpart in both crystalline quality and electrical properties. These findings highlight that microgravity provides a unique pathway to overcome the intrinsic limitations of ground-based growth, enabling crystal quality unattainable on Earth - with potential relevance to advanced optoelectronic applications.

npj Microgravity
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Institute of Semiconductors (CN), Shanghai Institute of Ceramics (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
National Key Research and Development Program of China
Openalex Percentile: Top 43%
Semiconductor Quantum Structures and Devices
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