Lattice Engineering Technology and Applications

Book, 2012

Heterostructures have revolutionized modern information and communication technology and also find wide use in other areas such as energy and entertainment etc. Complex heterostructures with thicknesses in nanometer are synthesized by epitaxy on high quality single crystalline substrates. One of the biggest challenges is that the lattice constant of the heterostructures must be equal or close to that of substrates to ensure high material quality, which greatly limits the flexibility of using different material combinations and increases product costs. Extensive research to solve the lattice mismatch problem has been carried out for over thirty years and this topic is still very attractive as it offers potentials to grow heterostructures on cheap and environment friendly substrate templates. This book contains comprehensive reviews of different technologies to harness lattice mismatch in semiconductor heterostructures and their applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices. While the book is a bit focused on metamorphic epitaxial growth, it also includes other methods like compliant substrate, selective area growth, wafer bonding and heterostructure nanowires etc. Basic knowledge on dislocations in semiconductors and innovative methods to eliminate threading dislocations are provided, and successful device applications are reviewed. The book covers a variety of important semiconductor materials like SiGe, III-V including GaN and nano-wires; epitaxial methods like molecular beam epitaxy and metal organic vapor phase epitaxy; and devices like transistors and lasers etc.