Effects of Si doping on the strain relaxation of metamorphic (Al)GaInP buffers grown on GaAs substrates

We investigate the effects of Si doping on the strain relaxation of the compositionally step-graded (Al)GaInP buffers grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on (0 0 1) GaAs substrates with different miscuts toward (1 1 1)A. It is found that in the 2 degrees samples, high Si doping can reduce both the alpha and beta dislocation densities by delaying and suppressing the formation of phase separation in the buffer. In contrast, in the 7 degrees samples, Si dopants deteriorate the buffer quality through increasing the dislocation density accompanying with the tilt reduction along the [1 1 0] direction, and a striking feature, bunches of beta dislocations away from the interfaces, is observed in the [1 1 0] cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy images. A cross-slip mechanism closely associated with the pinning effect of Si on alpha dislocation motion is proposed to explain the multiplication of beta dislocations. These results indicate that selecting a moderate Si doping density and substrate miscut are critical for the design and fabrication of metamorphic optoelectronic devices. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.