Strain engineering of epitaxially transferred, ultrathin layers of III-V semiconductor on insulator

Strain state of ultrathin InAs-on-insulator layers obtained from an epitaxial transfer process is studied. The as-grown InAs epilayer (10–20 nm thick) on the GaSb/AlGaSb source wafer has the expected ∼0.62% tensile strain. The strain is found to fully release during the epitaxial transfer of the InAs layer onto a Si/SiO2 substrate. In order to engineer the strain of the transferred InAs layers, a ZrOx cap was used during the transfer process to effectively preserve the strain. The work presents an important advance toward the control of materials properties of III-V on insulator layers.