Selective Epitaxy of InP on Si and Rectification in Graphene/InP/Si Hybrid Structure

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2016 Oct 12;8(40):26948-26955. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b09592. Epub 2016 Sep 28.

Abstract

The epitaxial integration of highly heterogeneous material systems with silicon (Si) is a central topic in (opto-)electronics owing to device applications. InP could open new avenues for the realization of novel devices such as high-mobility transistors in next-generation CMOS or efficient lasers in Si photonics circuitry. However, the InP/Si heteroepitaxy is highly challenging due to the lattice (∼8%), thermal expansion mismatch (∼84%), and the different lattice symmetries. Here, we demonstrate the growth of InP nanocrystals showing high structural quality and excellent optoelectronic properties on Si. Our CMOS-compatible innovative approach exploits the selective epitaxy of InP nanocrystals on Si nanometric seeds obtained by the opening of lattice-arranged Si nanotips embedded in a SiO2 matrix. A graphene/InP/Si-tip heterostructure was realized on obtained materials, revealing rectifying behavior and promising photodetection. This work presents a significant advance toward the monolithic integration of graphene/III-V based hybrid devices onto the mainstream Si technology platform.

Keywords: III−V compounds; graphene; monolithic integration; nanoheteroepitaxy; rectification.