Strain relaxation properties of InAsyP1−y metamorphic materials grown on InP substrates

The strain relaxation mechanism and defect properties of compositionally step-graded InAsyP1−y buffers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on InP have been investigated. InAsP layers having lattice misfits ranging from 1% to 1.4% with respect to InP, as well as subsequently grown lattice matched In0.69Ga0.31As overlayers on the metamorphic buffers were explored on both 100 and 2° offcut 100 InP substrates. The metamorphic graded buffers revealed very efficient relaxation coupled with low threading dislocation densities on the order of 1–2 106 cm−2 for the range of misfit values explored here. A detailed analysis via high resolution x-ray diffraction revealed that the strain relaxed symmetrically, with equivalent numbers of and dislocations, and to greater than 90% for all cases, regardless of substrate offcut. Further analysis showed the relaxation to always be glide limited in these materials when grown on a graded buffer compared to a single step layer. The threading dislocation density was observed by plan-view transmission electron microscopy to be constant for the range of misfit values studied here in the top layer of the graded structures, which is attributed to the very efficient use of residual dislocations and the dominance of dislocation glide over nucleation in these graded anion metamorphic buffers, suggesting great promise for metamorphic devices with lattice constants greater than that of InP to be enabled by InAsP metamorphic structures on InP. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.3098232