Heteroepitaxial growth of InSb films on a Si(0 0 1) substrate via AlSb buffer layer

AlSb is a more suitable material as buffer layers for the heteroepitaxial growth of InSb films on a Si(001) substrate than Ge. It reduces the large lattice mismatch of about 19.3% between Si and InSb to about 5.6%. The resistance of AlSb with stoichiometric composition is large enough for the measurement of electrical properties. InSb films grown on the AlSb/Si(001) substrates by the co-evaporation of elemental indium (In) and antimony (Sb) sources were characterized by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), as a function of growth temperature. The thickness of grown InSb films was about 0.8-1.0μm. The surface morphology and the crystal quality of the grown films strongly depend on growth temperature. It is found that the optimized growth temperature is about 300°C to obtain the InSb films with smooth surface and good crystal quality.