Atomic step-flow epitaxy of low defect InGaAs islands on Si(1 1 1) by micro-channel selective area MOVPE.

Highlights • Growth of InGaAs nucleation with single domain on Si(1 1 1). • Growth of InGaAs self-aligned pillar on Si(1 1 1). • Significant improvement in InGaAs islands' crystal quality and uniformity. • Unique atomic step patterns on InGaAs (1 1 1) facet by AFM, demonstrating atomic layer by layer growth. • Free of threading dislocation. Abstract We report successful growth of threading dislocation free InGaAs island arrays on masked Si(1 1 1) substrate by micro-channel selective area growth (MC-SAG). Developed from InGaAs/InAs/Si growth scheme (Deura et al., 2009) [1], InGaAs nucleation and pillar layer are originally introduced before the lateral growth in order to reduce the InGaAs/InAs lattice mismatch, leading to significant improvement in both crystal quality and uniformity. Unique atomic step patterns along 〈1 1 0〉 directions are observed on InGaAs (1 1 1) facet by AFM, demonstrating atomic layer by layer growth. No threading dislocation is detected. This scheme can be a very promising approach for high level III-V on Si integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]