The aim of this project is to develop a sound pathway to develop III-V optoelectronic devices on silicon for heterogeneous integration. Optoelectronic and photonic devices can be appealing in various applications including military, medical, and wirless communication applications. Our objective in this research work is to perform the feasibility study for realizing III-V (InGaAs/GaAs) laser on Si. We will design and fabricate the laser structure, eventually leading to integrated lasers and optoelectronics on Si. If successful, this technology will have a major impact for low-cost communication applications.
In order to enhance the properties of the GaAs grown on Si, InSe has been used as a 2D layered material buffer layer. InSe is a layered semiconductor that is thermally stable at high growth temperature and has a relatively high surface free energy. InSe was grown on Si(211) substrates through low temperature Van der Waals epitaxial growth followed by an annealing step. After this, 300 nm GaAs was grown epitaxially on InSe/Si(211) substrates using our III-V Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) system and an annealing treatment was carried out to observe the inifluence on the crystal quality. The crystal structure of GaAs grown on InSe/Si(211) was studied by X-Ray Diffraction Spectroscopy (XRD) and HRXRD. Photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) had confirmed the high quality with no defects signals detected at room temperature. Our growth results of a 300 nm GaAs film (annealed and no-annealed) on InSe/Si(211) substrates revealed a single-crystal GaAs layer with extraordinary quality according to our characterization methods.