Abstract
V-groove nanopatterning of Si substrates has recently demonstrated promise for achieving high-quality III-V-on-Si epitaxy while providing a lower-cost processing route than chemo-mechanical polishing to produce epi-ready planar wafers. A key factor in determining the crystalline quality of III-V buffer layers is the Si surface structure and its chemical composition. Unlike planar Si surfaces, the surfaces of V-grooves prior to growth have not been studied in detail. Here, we study the surface of V-groove Si prepared for GaP nucleation via X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and low-energy electron diffraction. We identify several pretreatments, using both 830 and 1000 annealing under an As background pressure, as being suitable for deoxidizing and cleaning the V-groove Si surface. The V-groove Si was found to behave similarly to reference Si(0 0 1) and Si(1 1 1) planar samples, demonstrating that in situ techniques such as reflection anisotropy spectroscopy can be used on reference samples to infer the state of the V-groove surface, and indicating that the extensive research on planar Si surfaces can be directly applied to V-grooves.
Original language | American English |
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Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Journal of Crystal Growth |
Volume | 597 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2022 |
NREL Publication Number
- NREL/JA-5900-81690
Keywords
- III-V epitaxy
- MOCVD
- nanopatterning
- photovoltaic
- PV
- solar cells
- V-grooves