GaAs/Ge/Si epitaxial substrates: Development and characteristics

Abstract

We developed high quality 2-inch GaAs/Ge/Si (100) epitaxial substrates, which may be used instead of GaAs monolithic substrates for fabrication of solar cells, photodetectors, LEDs, lasers, etc. A 200–300 nm Ge buffer layer was grown on Si substrates using the HW-CVD technique at 300°C, a tantalum strip heated to 1400°C was used as the “hotwire”. The MOCVD method was used to grow a 1 μ GaAs layer on a Ge buffer. The TDD in the GaAs layers did not exceed (1–2)∙105 cm-2 and the surface RMS roughness value was under 1 nm.