Raman spectroscopy of ternary III-V semiconducting films

• Main Author: Mashigo, Donald
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University 2009
• Subjects: Raman spectroscopy; Semiconductor films; Compound semiconductors
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1011

The III-V semiconductor compounds (i.e. In Ga As x 1-x , 1 x x InAs Sb - , In Ga Sb x 1-x and Al Ga As x 1-x ) have been studied using room temperature Raman spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction has been used as a complementary characterization technique. In this study all the III-V semiconductor compounds were grown by metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) on GaAs and GaSb substrates. The layers were studied with respect to composition, strain variation and critical thickness. Raman spectroscopy has been employed to assess the composition dependence of optical phonons in the layers. The alloy composition was varied, while the thickness was kept constant in order to investigate compositional effects. A significant frequency shift of the phonon modes were observed as the composition changed. The composition dependence of the phonon frequencies were described by linear and polynomial expressions. The results of this study were compared with previous Raman and infrared work on III-V semiconductor compounds. Strain relaxation in InGaAs and InGaSb has been investigated by Raman and X-ray diffraction. Measurements were performed on several series of layers. For each series, the thickness was varied, while keeping the composition constant. For a given composition, the layer thicknesses were such that some layers should be fully strained, some partially relaxed and some fully relaxed. The Raman peak shifts and XRD confirm that a layer grows up to the critical thickness and then releases the strain as the thickness increases. Critical layer thickness values measured in this study were compared with published data, in which various techniques had been used to estimate the critical thickness.