Van der Waals Epitaxial Growth of Ultrathin Indium Antimonide on Arbitrary Substrates through Low-Thermal Budget

Abstract

III–V semiconductors possess high mobility, high frequency response, and detection sensitivity, making them potentially attractive for beyond-silicon electronics applications. However, the traditional heteroepitaxy of III–V semiconductors is impeded by a significant lattice mismatch and the necessity for extreme vacuum and high temperature conditions, thereby impeding their in situ compatibility with flexible substrates and silicon-based circuits. In this study, a novel approach is presented for fabricating ultrathin InSb single-crystal nanosheets on arbitrary substrates with a thickness as thin as 2.4 nm using low-thermal-budget van der Waals (vdW) epitaxy through chemical vapor deposition (CVD). In particular, in situ growth has been successfully achieved on both silicon-based substrates and flexible polyimide (PI) substrates. Notably, the growth temperature required for InSb nanosheets (240 °C) is significantly lower than that employed in back-end-of-line processes (400 °C). The field effect transistor devices based on fabricated ultrathin InSb nanosheets exhibit ultra-high on-off ratio exceeding 108 and demonstrate minimal gate leakage currents. Furthermore, these ultrathin InSb nanosheets display p-type characteristics with hole mobilities reaching up to 203 cm2 V−1 s−1 at room temperatures. This study paves the way for achieving heterogeneous integration of III–V semiconductors and facilitating their application in flexible electronics.