Control and elimination of nucleation-related defects in GaP/Si(001) heteroepitaxy

GaP films were grown on offcut Si(001) substrates using migration enhanced epitaxy nucleation followed by molecular beam epitaxy, with the intent of controlling and eliminating the formation of heterovalent (III-V/IV) nucleation-related defects-antiphase domains, stacking faults, and microtwins. Analysis of these films via reflection high-energy electron diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and both cross-sectional and plan-view transmission electron microscopies indicate high-quality GaP layers on Si that portend a virtual GaP substrate technology, in which the aforementioned extended defects are simultaneously eliminated. The only prevalent remaining defects are the expected misfit dislocations due to the GaP-Si lattice mismatch.