Crystal defects and strain of epitaxial InP layers laterally overgrown on Si

Defects in epitaxial laterally overgrown (ELO) InP layers are examined by high-resolution X-ray diffraction and synchrotron X-ray back-reflection and transmission topography. X-ray diffraction maps produce information about the overall crystal quality of the epitaxial layers in the InP ELO sample. The topographs show small angle boundaries, and the associated dislocations are located at the boundaries between the crystallites; allowing for their relative tilt, the maximum value for this is 0.06 degrees. No defects inside the crystallites can be seen in the topographs, except for a small bending of 0.04 degrees at most, of the ELO lattice planes. The section topographs show deformed X-ray interference fringes resulting from the large strain of the silicon lattice below the seeding areas.