Coalescence of GaAs on (001) Si nano-trenches based on three-stage epitaxial lateral overgrowth

The coalescence of selective area grown GaAs regions has been performed on patterned 1.8 μm GaAs buffer layer on Si via metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. We propose a promising method of three-stage epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) to achieve uniform coalescence and flat surface. Rough surface caused by the coalescence of different growth fronts is smoothened by this method. Low root-mean-square surface roughness of 6.29 nm has been obtained on a 410-nm-thick coalesced ELO GaAs layer. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscope study shows that the coalescence of different growth fronts will induce some new dislocations. However, the coalescence-induced dislocations tend to mutually annihilate and only a small part of them reach the GaAs surface. High optical quality of the ELO GaAs layer has been confirmed by low temperature (77 K) photoluminescence measurements. This research promises a very large scale integration platform for the monolithic integration of GaAs-based device on Si.