UC Santa Barbara

Relaxed, high-quality, compositionally step-graded InAsyP1-y layers with an As composition of y=0.4, corresponding to a lattice mismatch of similar to1.3% were grown on InP substrates using solid-source molecular-beam epitaxy. Each layer was found to be nearly fully relaxed observed by triple axis x-ray diffraction, and plan-view transmission electron microscopy revealed an average threading dislocations of 4x10(6) cm(-2) within the InAs0.4P0.6 cap layer. Extremely ordered crosshatch morphology was observed with very low surface roughness (3.16 nm) compared to cation-based In0.7Al0.3As/InxAl1-xAs/InP graded buffers (10.53 nm) with similar mismatch and span of lattice constants on InP. The results show that InAsyP1-y graded buffers on InP are promising candidates as virtual substrates for infrared and high-speed metamorphic III-V devices. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.