Heteroepitaxial growth of GaAs/Ge buffer layer on Si for metamorphic InGaAs lasers

Abstract

We demonstrate heteroepitaxial growth of GaAs/Ge buffer layers for fabricating 1.3-μm range metamorphic InGaAs-based multiple quantum well (MQW) lasers in which the Ge buffer layer is grown using a metal-organic Ge precursor, iso-butyl germane, in a conventional metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy reactor. This enables us to grow Ge and GaAs buffer layers in the same reactor seamlessly. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analyses indicate that dislocations are well confined at the Ge/Si interface. Furthermore, thermal-cycle annealing significantly improves crystalline quality at the GaAs/Ge interface, resulting in higher photoluminescence intensity from the MQWs on the buffer layers.