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.
Authors
- Dianchen Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8614-5582)
- Zhengchang Xia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-0661-4456)
- Huaiwen Zheng
- Yin Zhigang
- Meibo Tang
- Xuechao Liu
- Jinliang Wu
- Ji Jiang
- Jidong Huang
- Xingwang Zhang
- Xiuhong Pan
Institutions
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Institute of Semiconductors (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Ceramics (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
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
Funders
- National Key Research and Development Program of China