GaAs microcrystals selectively grown on silicon: Intrinsic carbon doping during chemical beam epitaxy with trimethylgallium

The monolithic integration of III-V semiconductors on silicon and particularly of GaAs has aroused great interest since the 1980s. Potential applications are legion, ranging from photovoltaics to high mobility channel transistors. By using a novel integration method, we have shown that it is possible to achieve heteroepitaxial integration of GaAs crystals (typical size 1 μ m) on silicon without any structural defect such as antiphase domains, dislocations, or stress, usually reported for direct GaAs heteroepitaxy on silicon. However, concerning their electronic properties, conventional free carrier characterization methods are impractical due to the micrometric size of GaAs crystals. In order to evaluate the GaAs material quality for optoelectronic applications, a series of indirect analyses such as atom probe tomography, Raman spectroscopy, and micro-photoluminescence as a function of temperature were performed. These revealed a high content of partially electrically active carbon originating from the trimethylgallium used as the Ga precursor. Nevertheless, the very good homogeneity observed by this doping mechanism and the attractive properties of carbon as a dopant once controlled to a sufficient degree are a promising route to device doping.