Bismuth telluride have regained significant attention as a prototype of topological insulator. Thin films of high quality have been investigated as a basic platform for novel spintronic devices. Low mobility of bismuth and high desorption coefficient of telluride compose a scenario where growth parameters have drastic effects on structural and electronic properties of the films. Recently [J. Phys. Chem. C 2019, 123, 24818−24825], a detailed investigation has been performed on the dynamics of defects in epitaxial films of this material, revealing the impact of film/substrate lattice misfit on the films’ lateral coherence. Very small lattice misfit (<0.05%) are expected to have no influence on quality of epitaxial system with atomic layers weakly bonded to each other by van der Waals forces, contrarily to what was observed. In this work, we investigate the correlation between lattice misfit and size and morphology of the film crystalline domains. Three-dimensional reciprocal-space maps of film Bragg reflections obtained with synchrotron X-rays are used to visualize the spatial conformation of the crystallographic domains through film thickness, while atomic force microscopy images provide direct information of the domains morphology at the film surface.

The replacement of the strained Si channel in metal-oxide-semiconductor-field-effect-transistors (MOSFETs) with high electron mobility III-V compound semiconductors, particularly InGaAs, is being intensively investigated as an alternative to improve the drive current at low supply voltages in sub-10 nm CMOS applications. As device scaling continues, the reduction of the source and drain contact resistance becomes one of the most difficult challenges to fabricate highly scaled III-V-MOSFETs. In this article, we describe a self-aligned process based on selective molecular beam epitaxial regrowth of InxGa1-xAs (x=0-1) raised source/drain nanowire structures on etched recessed areas of a nanopatterned HfO2 template as a key element to integrate high mobility III-V materials with high-κ dielectrics in three-dimensional device architectures. The interaction of atomic H with the surface of the HfO2 nanopatterns has been investigated by using AFM, ToF-SIMS, and ARXPS. Selective growth has been observed for all values of x between 0 and 1. AFM results show that atomic H lowers the temperature process window for InxGa1-xAs selective growth. HRTEM images have revealed the conformality of the growth and the absence of nanotrench formation near the HfO2 mask edges. InxGa1-xAs alloys grown on H-treated HfO2 patterned substrates exhibit a higher uniformity in chemical composition and full strain relaxation for x≥0.5.

The topological insulator/superconductor heterostructure is one of the most promising platforms to create and manipulate Majorana bound states. Here, we used molecular beam epitaxy to grow high-quality (Bi0.5Sb0.5)2Te3 films on Nb surfaces. To promote proper (Bi0.5Sb0.5)2Te3 film nucleation in the early growth stage, we developed a two-step growth method. Bi, Sb, and Te clusters were first evaporated at a low temperature of 180 °C, which is below the typical growth temperature and then annealed to form a crystalized passivation layer. Second, a standard (Bi0.5Sb0.5)2Te3 film was grown under the normal deposition temperature of 280 °C. We used reflection high-energy electron diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction to further characterize the (Bi0.5Sb0.5)2Te3 film and passivation layer quality. Finally, the top Nb film was laid down by magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The hetero-Nb/epitaxial (Bi0.5Sb0.5)2Te3/Nb stacks were further fabricated into micro-Josephson junctions and showed clear Josephson currents demonstrating an excellent material quality.

Ternary sulfides and selenides in the distorted-perovskite structure (“chalcogenide perovskites”) are predicted by theory to be semiconductors with band gap in the visible-to-infrared and may be useful for optical, electronic, and energy conversion technologies. Density functional theory can be used in combination with computational thermodynamics to predict the pressure-temperature phase diagrams for chalcogenide perovskites. We report results using the Strongly Constrained and Appropriately Normed (SCAN) and the rVV10 density functionals, and compare to previously-published results using the PBEsol functional. We highlight the windows of thermodynamic equilibrium between solid chalcogenide perovskites and the vapor phase at high temperature and very low pressure. These phase diagrams can guide adsorption-limited growth of ternary chalcogenides by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the thickness of N radical irradiated InN template with crystallographic quality and electrical properties of InN film grown with the previously proposed method, in situ surface modification by radical beam irradiation. In this study, three InN samples were grown with this method on different thickness of irradiated templates. The crystallographic quality of InN films was analyzed by X-ray diffraction and the electrical properties were studied by Hall effect measurement. InN grown on 100 nm thick irradiated template shows lower full-width at half-maximum of X-ray rocking curves and lower carrier concentration compared to InN grown on 200 nm and 450 nm thick irradiated templates. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that threading dislocation density in the InN film decreased by an order of magnitude to ∼4.6×109cm-2. These results suggest that this method is possible for reduction of threading dislocation density in InN and the thickness of irradiated template should be minimized for higher crystallographic quality and electrical properties of the entire InN film.

Isolated single quantum dots (QDs) enable the investigation of quantum-optics phenomena for the application of quantum information technologies. In this work, ultralow-density InAs QDs are grown by combining droplet etching epitaxy and the conventional epitaxy growth mode. An extreme low density of QDs (∼106 cm−2) is realized by creating low-density self-assembled nanoholes with the high temperature droplet etching epitaxy technique and then nanohole-filling. The preferred nucleation of QDs in nanoholes has been explained by a theoretical model. Atomic force microscopy and the photoluminescence technique are used to investigate the morphological and optical properties of the QD samples. By varying In coverages, the size of InAs QDs can be controlled. Moreover, with a thin GaAs cap layer, the position of QDs remains visible on the sample surface. Such a low density and surface signature of QDs make this growth method promising for single QD investigation and single dot device fabrication.

The nucleation and growth of Al on 7 × 7 and $\sqrt 3 \times \sqrt 3$R30 Al reconstructed Si(111) that result in strain-free Al overgrown films grown with an atomically abrupt metamorphic interface are compared. The reconstructed surfaces and abrupt strain relaxations are verified using reflection high-energy electron diffraction. The topography of evolution is examined with atomic force microscopy. The growth of Al on both the surfaces exhibits 3D island growth, but the island evolution of growth is dramatically different. On the 7 × 7 surface, mounds formed are uniformly distributed across the substrate, and growth appears to proceed uniformly. Alternatively, on the $\sqrt 3 \times \sqrt 3$R30 surface, Al atoms exhibit a clear preference to form mounds near the step edges. During Al growth, mounds increase in size and number, expanding out from step edges until they cover the whole substrate. Consistent expression of a mounded nucleation and growth mode imparts a physical limitation to the achievable surface roughness that may impact the ultimate performance of layered devices such as Josephson junctions that are critical components of superconducting quantum circuits.

Epitaxial layers of insulating binary lanthanide oxides have been considered as potential alternative to conventional SiO2 for gate dielectric application in future Si-based MOSFET devices, which was investigated in more detail for epitaxial Gd2O3 and Nd2O3 as model systems. Additionally, the ability to integrate epitaxial dielectric barrier layers into Si structures can usher also in a variety of novel applications involving oxide/silicon/oxide heterostructures in diverse nanoelectronic and quantum-effect devices. Although epitaxial layers of such ionic oxides with excellent structural quality can be grown using molecular beam epitaxy, they often exhibit poor electrical properties such as high leakage current density, flat band instability, poor reliability etc. owing to the presence of electrically active charge defects, generated either during the oxide layer growth or typical subsequent CMOS process steps. Based on the origin and individual character of these defects, we review various aspects of defect prevention and passivation which lead to a significant improvement in the dielectric properties of the heterostructures.

In this study the improvement in thermal stability of optical properties of InAs submonolayer quantum dot (SML QD) heterostructures is observed through incorporation of symmetric AlGaAs barrier layers. Low temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra shows blue shift with less full width at half maxima, ascribe to the assimilation of AlGaAs barrier layers. The sample with confinement enhancing barrier shows the highest ground to ground transition energy with the lowest dot size distribution. Ex situ annealing of as grown samples, followed by PL analysis, confirms the improvement in thermal stability of optical behavior. For the samples with symmetric AlGaAs layer, annealing at higher temperatures under an inert condition can not change the downward transition energy effectively, whereas normal DWELL structures exhibits significant blue shift for the same.

We report on the structural and electrical properties of epitaxial SmN thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The effect of the growth temperature and nitrogen precursor, either pure molecular N2 or NH3 was investigated. The structural quality of SmN was assessed by X-ray diffraction and the epitaxial growth character is observed over the entire range of growth temperatures, from 300°C to 800°C, with both nitrogen precursors. The highest quality films are produced at a growth temperature of about 430°C by using N2 as a nitrogen precursor. Hall Effect and resistivity measurements establish that SmN films are heavily n-type doped semiconductors, suggesting the presence of nitrogen vacancies, a recurring phenomenon in rare earth nitride compounds.

InSb has been considered as a promising material for spintronic applications owing to its pronounced spin effects as a result of large intrinsic electronic g-factor. In addition, embedding InSb quantum nanostructures in a GaAs matrix could create type-II band alignment, where radiation lifetimes are longer than those of the typical type-I systems. Such characteristics are promising for memory devices and infrared photonic applications. The growth of InSb/GaAs quantum nanostructures by strain driven mechanism using molecular beam epitaxy with low growth temperature, slow growth rate, Sb soaking process prior to In deposition, and small amount of In deposition typically creates a mixture of twin and single nano-stripe structures with truncated pyramid shape. In this work, we further investigate the growth mechanism of such twin InSb/GaAs nano-stripes by controlling the growth conditions, consisting of nanostructure growth duration and growth temperature. When the growth temperature is kept to less than 300°C and In deposition is set to only a few monolayers, we found that 25-40% of formed nanostructures are twin InSb/GaAs nano-stripes. However, when the In deposition is stopped immediately after the spotty reflection high-energy electron diffraction patterns are observed, the ratio of twin nano-stripes to single ones is increased to 50-60%. We therefore describe the growth mechanism of twin nano-stripes as the early state of single nano-stripe formation, where the twin nano-stripes are initially formed during the first monolayer of InSb formation as a result of large lattice mismatch of 14.6%. When In deposition is increased to a few monolayers, the gap between twin nano-stripes is filled up and consequently forms the single nano-stripes instead. With this particular twin nano-stripe growth mechanism, the preservation of high ratio of twin nano-stripe formation can be expected by further reducing the growth temperature, i.e. less than 260°C. These twin nano-stripes may find applications in the fields of spintronics and novel interference nano-devices.

GdN/SmN based superlattices have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy. In-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction was used to evaluate the evolution of the epitaxial growth and the structural properties were assessed by ex-situ X-ray diffraction. Hall Effect and resistivity measurements as a function of the temperature establish that the superlattices are heavily n-type doped semiconductors and the electrical conduction resides in both REN layers, SmN and GdN.

Thin films of NbO2 are synthesized by oxide molecular-beam epitaxy on (001) MgF2 substrates, which are isostructural (rutile structure) with NbO2. Two growth parameters are systematically varied in order to identify appropriate growth conditions: growth temperature and the partial pressure of O2 during film growth. θ-2θ X-ray diffraction measurements identify two dominant phases in this system at background oxygen pressures in the (0.2–6)×10–7 Torr range: rutile NbO2 is favored at higher growth temperature, while Nb2O5 forms at lower growth temperature. Electrical resistivity measurements were made between 350 K and 675 K on three epitaxial NbO2 films in a nitrogen ambient. These measurements show that NbO2 films grown in higher partial pressures of molecular oxygen have larger temperature-dependent changes in electrical resistivity and higher resistivity at room temperature.

In this study, we present the coupling between InAs submonolayer (SML) and stranski krastanov (SK) quantum dots (QDs). Interaction between these two different dot families has been manipulated by changing the capping layer thickness. Significant shift in photoluminescence (PL) peak is observed due to the coupling effect. The dynamics of the carriers in this mixed dot matrix has also been modified, which is evident from the increasing activation energy with increasing thickness of the capping layer. Moreover, an ex situ annealing study at different temperatures has been done to check the thermal stability of the as-grown samples. Annealing at lower temperatures, improves the crystal quality a bit, but higher annealing temperatures accelerate the In-Ga interdiffusion and form smaller dots, which is visible from a blue shift in the PL peak of annealed samples. Also, this thermal process improves the dot size distribution.

We report on recent doping experiments of cubic GaN epilayers by Ge and investigate in detail the optical properties by photoluminescence spectroscopy. Plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy was used to deposit Ge-doped cubic GaN layers with nominal thicknesses of 600 nm on 3C-SiC(001)/Si(001) substrates. The Ge doping level could be varied by around six orders of magnitude by changing the Ge effusion cell temperature. A maximum free carrier concentration of 3.7×1020 cm-3 was measured in the GaN layers via Hall-effect at room temperature. Low temperature photoluminescence (PL) showed a clear shift of the donor-acceptor emission to higher energies with increasing Ge-doping. Above a Ge concentration of ∼ 2x1018cm-3 the near band edge lines merge to one broad band. From temperature dependent measurements of the observed excitonic and donor-acceptor transitions a donor-energy of ∼ 36 meV could be estimated for Ge.

AlGaN based multiple quantum wells (MQWs) were grown on 8° vicinal 4H p-SiC substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The MQWs were designed to emit near 300 nm using the wurtzite k.p model. The MQW periodicity and strain state were measured with X-ray diffraction. The optical properties were characterized with temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL). The internal quantum efficiency was estimated from the ratio of room temperature to 18K integrated PL intensity. Internal quantum efficiency up to 48% was achieved. These data are encouraging for future vertical and inverted ultraviolet light emitting diodes grown on p-SiC substrates.

The epitaxial integration of III–V optoelectronic devices on silicon will be the enabling technology for full-scale deployment of silicon photonics and the key to improving communication systems. Silicon photonics also offer new opportunities for the realization of ultracompact and fully integrated sensing systems operating in the mid-infrared (MIR) regime of the spectrum. In this article, we review recent developments, through several approaches, in the direct metamorphic epitaxial growth of various III–V materials-based lasers on silicon substrates. We show that GaAs-based 1.3-μm III–V quantum dot lasers and GaSb-based MIR quantum-well lasers grown on silicon substrates can operate with low threshold current density and high operating temperature, which hold promise for the future.

Layered materials are an actively pursued area of research for realizing highly scaled technologies involving both traditional device structures as well as new physics. Lately, non-equilibrium growth of 2D materials using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is gathering traction in the scientific community and here we aim to highlight one of its strengths, growth of abrupt heterostructures, and superlattices (SLs). In this work we present several of the firsts: first growth of MoTe2 by MBE, MoSe2 on Bi2Se3 SLs, transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) SLs, and lateral junction between a quintuple atomic layer of Bi2Te3 and a triple atomic layer of MoTe2. Reflected high electron energy diffraction oscillations presented during the growth of TMD SLs strengthen our claim that ultrathin heterostructures with monolayer layer control is within reach.

We studied the InGaP/GaAs//InGaAsP/InGaAs four-junction solar cells grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), which were fabricated by the novel wafer bonding. In order to reach a higher conversion efficiency at highly concentrated illumination, heat generation should be minimized. We have improved the device structure to reduce the thermal and electrical resistances. Especially, the bond resistance was reduced to be the lowest value of 2.5 × 10-5 Ohm cm2 ever reported for a GaAs/InP wafer bond, which was obtained by the specific combination of p+-GaAs/n-InP bonding and by using room-temperature wafer bonding. Furthermore, in order to increase the short circuit current density (Jsc) of 4-junction solar cell, we have developed the quality of InGaAsP material by increasing the growth temperature from 490 °C to 510 °C, which leads to a current matching. In a result, an efficiency of 42 % at 230 suns of the four-junction solar cell fabricated by room-temperature wafer bonding was achieved.

Complex oxides and semiconductors exhibit distinct yet complementary propertiesowing to their respective ionic and covalent natures. By electrically couplingoxides to semiconductors within epitaxial heterostructures, enhanced or novelfunctionalities beyond those of the constituent materials can potentially berealized. Key to electrically coupling oxides to semiconductors is controllingthe physical and electronic structure of semiconductor – crystallineoxide heterostructures. Here we discuss how composition of the oxide can bemanipulated to control physical and electronic structure inBa1-xSrxTiO3/ Ge andSrZrxTi1-xO3/Ge heterostructures. In thecase of the former we discuss how strain can be engineered through compositionto enable the re-orientable ferroelectric polarization to be coupled to carriersin the semiconductor. In the case of the latter we discuss how composition canbe exploited to control the band offset at the semiconductor - oxide interface.The ability to control the band offset, i.e. band-gap engineering, provides apathway to electrically couple crystalline oxides to semiconductors to realize ahost of functionalities.