Effect of the Surface Morphology of Seed and Mask Layers on InP Grown on Si by Epitaxial Lateral Overgrowth

Heteroepitaxy of InP on Si by epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELOG) using a thin seed layer of InP as starting material is investigated, with special attention given to the effect of the surface morphology of the seed and the mask layers on the quality of the ELOG layers. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has been used to improve the morphological and optical quality of InP grown by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy (HVPE) using ELOG. Two approaches have been investigated: polishing the InP seed layer on Si before depositing the SiO2 mask and polishing the SiO2 mask after its deposition on the unprocessed seed layer. For polishing the InP (seed)/Si, a two-step process with an aluminum oxide- and sodium hypochlorite-containing slurry as well as a slurry based on sodium hypochlorite mixed with citric acid was used. For SiO2 mask polishing, a slurry with colloidal silica as an abrasive was employed. In both cases, the SiO2 mask was patterned with double line openings and ELOG carried out in an HVPE reactor. Morphology and crystal quality of the resulting ELOG layers were studied with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and room-temperature panchromatic cathodoluminescence (PC-CL) in situ in a scanning electron microscope (SEM), respectively. The results show that, whereas both polishing approaches result in an ELOG InP layer with good morphology, its surface roughness is lower when the InP (seed)/Si is subjected to CMP prior to deposition of the SiO2 mask, than when only the SiO2 mask is polished. This approach also leads to a decrease in the number of defects generated during coalescence of the ELOG layers.