High-speed devices using III-V compound materials have become one of the international research hotspots[
Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves, Volume. 44, Issue 1, 1(2025)
The influence of V/III ratio on electron mobility of the InAsxSb1-x layers grown on GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy
This paper discusses the influence of Sb/In ratio on the transport properties and crystal quality of the 200 nm InAsxSb1-x thin film. The Sb content of InAsxSb1-x thin film in all samples was verified by HRXRD of the symmetrical 004 reflections and asymmetrical 115 reflections. The calculation results show that the Sb component was 0.6 in the InAsxSb1-x thin film grown under the conditions of Sb/In ratio of 6 and As/In ratio of 3, which has the highest electron mobility (28 560 cm2/V·s) at 300 K. At the same time, the influence of V/III ratio on the transport properties and crystal quality of Al0.2In0.8Sb/InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures also has been investigated. As a result, the Al0.2In0.8Sb/InAs0.4Sb0.6 quantum well heterostructure with a channel thickness of 30 nm grown under the conditions of Sb/In ratio of 6 and As/In ratio of 3 has a maximum electron mobility of 28 300 cm2/V·s and a minimum RMS roughness of 0.68 nm. Through optimizing the growth conditions, our samples have higher electron mobility and smoother surface morphology.
Introduction
High-speed devices using III-V compound materials have become one of the international research hotspots[
Since the InAsSb material contains two V elements of As and Sb,the composition of group V elements cannot be accurately calculated by the ratio of growth rates. More influencing factors need to be considered when growing InAsSb materials because the adhesion of As and Sb elements varies under different growth conditions. Therefore,it is necessary to study the composition control of InAsSb materials grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Based on the theoretical calculation results reported in the current literature[
This paper discusses the influence of Sb/In ratio on the transport properties and crystal quality of the 200 nm InAsxSb1-x thin film. The Sb content of InAsxSb1-x thin film in all samples was verified by HRXRD via the symmetrical 004 reflections and asymmetrical 115 reflections. In addition,the influence of Sb/In ratio and As/In ratio on the transport properties and crystal quality of Al0.2In0.8Sb/ InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures has also been investigated. By optimizing the Sb/In ratio and As/In ratio,Al0.2In0.8Sb/ InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures with good surface morphology and high electron mobility were obtained. All samples were confirmed by atomic force microscopy(AFM),high-resolution X-ray diffraction(HRXRD),reciprocal space map(RSM) and Hall measurement.
1 Experimental procedures
All samples were grown on GaAs substrate by Gen-II solid-source MBE system. After deoxidation of GaAs substrate at 690 ℃ for 5 minutes,a 100 nm GaAs was grown at 650 ℃ and a 100 nm GaSb was grown at 540 ℃ to ensure that the substrate surface was flat. For one structure,a 1.5 μm Al0.2In0.8Sb metamorphic buffer layer was used to study the transport properties of the 200 nm InAsxSb1-x layer,as shown in
Figure 1.Schematic diagram of InAsxSb1-x thin film structure
For another structure,the Al0.2In0.8Sb/ InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures were grown for preparing high electron mobility transistors,as shown in
Figure 2.Schematic diagram of Al0.2In0.8Sb/ InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures
The first group of samples B1,B2,and B3 with different Sb/In ratios(5,6,7) were grown to investigate the effects of different Sb components on the crystal quality and electron mobility of Al0.2In0.8Sb/ InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures,while the As/In ratio was also kept at about 3. Meanwhile,the channel thickness of this group of samples was 15 nm.The second group of samples C1,C2,and C3 with different As/In ratios(1,2,3) were grown to investigate the effects of different As components on the crystal quality and electron mobility of Al0.2In0.8Sb/InAsxSb1-xquantum well heterostructures,while the Sb/In ratio was kept at about 6. Meanwhile,the channel thickness of this group of samples was increased from 15nm to 30nm. The third group of samples D1,D2,D3,D4 and D5 corresponds to InAs0.4Sb0.6 channel layer thicknesses of 15,20,25,30 and 35 nm to investigate the effect of different channel thicknesses on the crystal quality and electron mobility of Al0.2In0.8Sb/ InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures. The Sb/In ratio was kept at about 6 and the As/In ratio was kept at about 3.
2 Results and discussion
2.1 The influences of Sb/In ratios on InAsxSb1-x thin films
Figure 3.(a) 2×2 μm2 AFM image of samples A1, A2, A3; (b) 10×10 μm2 AFM image of samples A1, A2, A3
The Sb content of the InAsxSb1-x layer in all samples was verified by HRXRD via the symmetrical 004 reflections and asymmetrical 115 reflections,as shown in Fig.
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The crystalline quality of the epitaxial layers was further assessed by XRD RSM measurements.
Figure 4.HRXRD scanning curves of (a) (004) peak and (b) (115) peak for various samples.
Figure 5.XRD RSMs of the symmetrical(004)(a) sample A1;(b) sample A2 and(c) sample A3
The influence of the V/III ratio on the electrical properties of InAsxSb1-x thin films was examined by determining the Hall properties. The electron mobility μ refers to the average speed of electron units under the electric field intensity. The value of μ can be obtained from the following formula:
Where them,m* represents the electron effective massive,τ represents the mean free time of electrons and q represents electron charge. InAsxSb1-x is a compound of InSb and InAs materials,so its crystal structure is relatively stable. The room temperature electron effective mass of InAsxSb1-x is 0.023-0.039(1-x)+0.03(1-x)2 m0. Therefore,InAsSb with a 60% Sb component has the lowest electron effective mass among III-V compound semiconductors,resulting in the highest electron mobility[
Figure 6.Electron mobility μ and 2DEG concentrations ns versus different Sb/In ratios for samples A1,A2,A3
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2.2 The influences of Sb/In ratios on Al0.2In0.8Sb/InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures
Although InAsSb has excellent transmission properties,the lack of matching high-quality semi-insulating substrates limits its development. Therefore,an Al0.2In0.8Sb strain buffer layer was used to release the stress caused by the lattice mismatch between InAsSb and GaAs substrates. The AFM images of Al0.2In0.8Sb/InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures grown under different Sb/In ratios are shown in
Figure 7.10×10 μm2 AFM image of samples B1,B2,B3
The(004) HRXRD scanning curves of samples with different Sb components are shown in
Figure 8.HRXRD scanning curves of(004) peak for samples B1,B2,B3
As shown in
Figure 9.Electron mobility μ and 2DEG concentrations ns versus different Sb/In ratios
2.3 The influences of As/In ratio on Al0.2In0.8Sb/
It can be observed from the comparison between
Figure 10.10×10 μm2 AFM image of samples C1,C2,C3
The(004) HRXRD scanning curves of samples with different As components are shown in
Figure 11.HRXRD scanning curves of(004) peak for samples C1,C2,C3
Electron mobility is an important electrical parameter that can be used to evaluate whether Al0.2In0.8Sb/InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures grown by MBE can be used to prepare high mobility transistors. As shown in
Figure 12.Electron mobility μ and 2DEG concentrations ns versus different As/In ratios
2.4 The influences of channel thickness on Al0.2In0.8Sb/InAs0.4Sb0.6 quantum well heterostructures
Based on the previous optimization results,it was found that the thickness of the InAsxSb1-x layer has a significant impact on electron mobility. Therefore,the influence of channel thickness on electron mobility and 2DEG concentration was studied while fixing the Sb/In ratio at 6 and As/In ratio at 3.
Figure 13.Electron mobility μ and 2DEG concentration ns versus different channel thickness
3 Conclusion
In summary,the influence of the V/III ratio on the transport properties and crystal quality of the 200 nm InAsxSb1-x thin film and Al0.2In0.8Sb/InAsxSb1-x quantum well heterostructures has been investigated. The calculation results indicated that the Sb component is 0.6 in the InAsxSb1-x thin film when grown under the conditions of Sb/in ratio of 6 and As/in ratio of 3. Meanwhile,the highest electron mobility of InAsxSb1-x thin film measured at room temperature was 28 560 cm2/V·s. In addition,the highest electron mobility of the Al0.2In0.8Sb/InAs0.4Sb0.6 quantum well heterostructures was obtained at 28 300 cm2/V·s for a sample with a channel thickness of 30 nm grown under the conditions where Sb/in ratio was 6 and As/in ratio was 3. This investigation reports the high-quality film and high electron mobility obtained for Al0.2In0.8Sb/InAs0.4Sb0.6 heterostructures lattice-matched to GaAs and opens the exploration of their uses in high electron mobility transistors.
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Jing ZHANG, Zhi YANG, Li-Ming ZHENG, Xiao-Juan ZHU, Ping WANG, Lin YANG. The influence of V/III ratio on electron mobility of the InAsxSb1-x layers grown on GaAs substrate by molecular beam epitaxy[J]. Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves, 2025, 44(1): 1
Category: Infrared Physics, Materials and Devices
Received: Jan. 20, 2024
Accepted: --
Published Online: Mar. 5, 2025
The Author Email: ZHANG Jing (zhangjing6048@126.com)