Semiconductor Alloys




1. Theory of Spontaneous Long-Range Order in Semiconductor Alloys

2. Defects on GaAs Surfaces

3. III-V Nitrides

1. Theory of Spontaneous Long-Range Order in Semiconductor Alloys

I. BACKGROUND

In the mid eighties, it was known that size mismatch between the atomic constituents leads to positive mixing enthalpy D H(R) > 0 of random (R) alloys. The question we posed in the Fall of 1984 was: Does the fact that D H(R) > 0 for all random isovalent semiconductor alloys preclude the formation of long-range order? The time-honored prevailing paradigm in metal alloys was that D H(R) > 0 reflects the existence of fundamentally repulsive interactions between the alloy constituents, and since ordering requires attractive interactions, D H(R) > 0 excludes the possibility of ordering. What we found in what became the first published paper on spontaneous long-range order of size-mismatched semiconductor alloys [1] was that this paradigm was incorrect, and that long-range order is, in principle, consistent even with D H(R) > 0. The basic insight was that D H(R) > 0 merely reflects the fact that in a random alloy, there is a distribution of many different local environments ("clusters," such as PGa2In2, PGa3In1, PGa1In3), and that the statistical average of their energies is positive, because some of these clusters are strained. But if one were to isolate a single cluster type and repeat it periodically in a strain-minimizing three-dimensional geometric arrangement, long-range order will ensue. This basic observation published in early 1985 [1], started the pursuit by theorists, and experimentalists of long-range order in size-mismatched semiconductor alloys. The first experimental observations of ordering in size-mismatched semiconductor alloys were made by the NEC group of Gomyo and Suzuki, and by the Utah group of G. Stringfellow just a couple of years later.

In the intervening years since this first discovery, we have learned a great deal more about this problem, including the role of surface reconstructions in stabilizing the ordering and the way in which the optical properties of ordered alloys are distinct from those of random alloys. Because ordering doubles the crystallographic unit cell, while altering the point group symmetry from Td to C3V, new optical transitions, crystal-field splittings and phonon modes have emerged. This phenomenology created significant experimental and theoretical excitement.

The fact that by inducing ordering one could alter the materials properties of an alloy without altering its chemical composition (thus, retaining its lattice-matching with a given substrate) opened novel technological opportunities. In 1990, a "2% New Initiative" proposal was submitted to OER-BES-DMS on a coordinated growth (Olson, III-V’s and Furdyna, II-VI’s), spectroscopy (Mascarenhas), and theory (Zunger) study of ordering. Because GaInP was, at the time, the alloy of choice for photovoltaic application, most of the experimental work has focused on it.

This section of the write-up summarizes what we have learned from our theoretical studies of ordering. The theoretical work in this project had a few distinct functions:

  1. Understanding of the "basic physics" (i) driving ordering; and, (ii) the effects of ordering on material properties.

  2. Explaining available experimental observations on ordered materials (mostly GaInP).

  3. Predicting hitherto unmeasured "fingerprints" and novel properties of ordered materials.

  4. Extending our knowledge and predictions to spontaneous ordering in novel semiconductor/insulator systems, including: (i) vacancy ordering in oxides Lix ð 1-x(CoO2); (ii) ordering in nitrides; (iii) ordering in chalcopyrites, e.g., CuxIn1-x(Se2).

The theoretical work has thus focused on the following areas of research:

  1. The causes of spontaneous ordering (studying bulk, epitaxial, and surface thermodynamics).

  2. The consequences of spontaneous ordering on material properties.

  3. The prediction of ordering in new systems.

  4. Conceiving new ideas for future work on Ordering.

We will next review our progress in these areas, emphasizing research in the last three years. We will also describe the essential results from earlier years so as to clarify the evolution of the research. Each section title includes references to papers published on that subject.

II. TECHNICAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

A. THE CAUSES OF ORDERING

(i) Early Work: Bulk and Epitaxial Effects [1-15; 18-20]

Our early work on causes of ordering focused on bulk ordering [1]–[7], [18, 19, 20, 21] and epitaxial ordering [8]–[15], [43]. Concerning bulk ordering, we have used the first-principles pseudopotential method to calculate the total energy of various assumed bulk ordered phases of many III-V and II-VI alloys, contrasting the energies with those of the random phase. The latter was computed as a statistical average of the energies of the various local environments that exist in a random alloy. These studies have shown that even though the random alloy has a positive mixing enthalpy D H(R)(x)>0, some special 3D ordered atomic arrangements can remarkably minimize strain and maximize charge-transfer, hence become stabler! For AlInP2 and AlInAs2 (having strong charge transfer) the local density approximation (LDA) predicted [19] D H(O) < 0 for the ordered (O) chalcopyrite phase, leading to stability of bulk ordering. For all other III-V compounds, we found that while the ordered phase has positive excess enthalpy D H(O) > 0, for the chalcopyrite (CH) structure D H(CH) < D H(R), so this structure can order metastabily in bulk. We found that other crystal structures (e.g., CuPt) are "topologically frustrated," i.e., do not possess enough geometrical degrees of freedom to permit all chemical bonds to attain their ideal length. Thus, these networks are intrinsically strained and, therefore, bulk unstable. After this work was published, Stringfellow et al., have observed chalcopyrite ordering in III-V alloys. These findings were reviewed in Ref. 29.

Concerning epitaxial ordering [8] – [15], we have discovered that coherence with the substrate can convert the previously predicted metastable bulk ordering into stable epitaxial ordering. The reason is as follows: In the bulk, D H(CH) > 0, because the relaxed alloy constituents A+B are lower in energy than the ordered AB phase. But on a coherent substrate, phase-separation of AB into A+B is discouraged because these coherently-matched constituents (A-on-substrate and B-on-substrate) are highly strained. Thus, on a substrate, D H(CH) < 0 not because the ordered chalcopyrite phase is stabilized, but because the alternative to ordering (phase separation) is destabilized! We cause the ordered chalcopyrite phase is stabilized, but because the alternative to ordering (phase separation) is destabilized! We applied these novel concepts to Si-Ge, Si-C [8] and III-V’s [9]-[15] computing, for the first time, temperature-composition phase diagram of epitaxially ordered alloys. The significance of this work was the establishment of novel mechanism for epitaxial stabilization of bulk-metastable structures.

(ii) Recent Work: Reconstruction-induced Ordering

It was clear to us in 1989 that in addition to bulk and epitaxial effects, there must be other driving forces for ordering, since the "CuPt ordered phase" discovered experimentally by Gomyo and Suzuki was shown by us theoretically to be unstable both according to bulk and epitaxial thermodynamics. We then embarked on a new idea: calculation of surface-induced ordering mechanism [22, 25, 26, 27, 48, 49, 55, 69]. What we discovered [22] beginning in 1991 was that the most common feature of semiconductor surfaces – the existing of atomic dimerization at the surface – creates an energetic incentive for the Ga and In atoms in the subsurface layers to adopt ordered positions akin to the CuPt structure. This idea, used earlier by Legous et al., to explain binary ordering in Si-Ge, was applied by us to ternary III-V alloys by performing LDA and valence force field calculations. We considered cation dimerization [22] as well as anion dimerization [25, 26, 27] predicting for the first time a strong surface-thermodynamic driving force for CuPt ordering. (Phillips and Norman et al., in the U.K., repeated a similar suggestion a few years later). The significance of this work was to establish: (i) the first theoretical calculation of a surface-induced ordering mechanism in III-V alloys; (ii) a "dictionary," [48] connecting different reconstruction patterns [(2 x 4); (4 x 2); (4 x 4); (2 x 6)] with different forms of long-range order (CuPtA, CuPtB, triple-period); (iii) explaining how surface solubilities can exceed, by many orders of magnitude, bulk solubility [55], and; (iv) relating surface reconstruction with surface segregation [49, 69]. Our work explained the previously observed CuPtB ordering, and was confirmed by subsequent experiments of Stringfellow et al., and Suzuki et al., who demonstrated the link between reconstruction and ordering: they succeeded in altering the ordering patterns by manipulating the surface reconstruction through changing growth parameters.

B. THE CONSEQUENCES OF ORDERING

This part of our study was aimed at understanding how ordering of the random alloy changes electronic, vibrational, structural, mechanical and magnetic properties of the material.

[APL, 73, 3905 (1998)].

C. THE PREDICTION OF ORDERING IN NEW SYSTEMS

Much of the experimental work on ordering has centered around GaInP, largely because of the availability of good samples, produced in studies of high-efficiency photovoltaic solar cells. A significant part of our theoretical work has, therefore, also centered around GaInP. However, as theorists, we feel that we should attempt to understand a broader set of "generic materials." To this end, we have extended our interest to "ordering in new systems." Examples follow:

PAST ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE THEORY PROGRAM ON ORDERING:

  1. Published 23 papers in 1984-1991 (before the start of the BES initiative), and 45 papers 1991– Present (during the initiative). This includes:

  2. Presented two APS March meeting Invited Talks.

  3. Delivered sixteen other Invited Talks.

  4. Outstanding sustained achievement award in Solid State Physics," given to A. Zunger in 1998 by BES-DMS, in part due to this work on theory of ordering.

  5. Cover page of "MRS Bulletin" (Vol. 22, 1997) on our work.

  6. Was invited to organize symposia on "ordering in semiconductors," in the Electronics Materials Conference – 1997, 1998, 1999.

  7. Published a highly cited book-size review article on the subject [Ref. 37].

References

For a listing of all SST references on the topic "Spontaneous Ordering in Semiconductor Alloys", click on the "Get References" button below.

2. Defects on GaAs Surfaces

In order to determine the structural properties of defects on semiconductor surfaces using STM, it is crucial to properly interpret the STM images using, for example, state-of-art first principles calculations. The case considered here in the above figures (click on small figures above to see full-size versions) is As vacancies on the GaAs(110) surface. STM images were generated using ab-initio wavefunctions and supercells, which probe the isosurface of the wavefunctions squared over a given energy window. The two figures here were calculated with a negative sample bias of about 2 eV to reveal states associated with surface As atoms. They show, on the appearance, that surface As atoms near the vacancy are displaced towards the underlying bulk. In calculations with large enough surface supercells (see the 2nd figure), significant As displacements in the STM images due to As vacancy were found while in fact the vacancy causes little As atomic motion. Discrepancies between the actual atomic positions and those inferred from the STM images for Ga atoms are even more pronounced. A detailed analysis explaining this paradox is the subject of the reference below

References

For a listing of all SST references on the topic "Clean Semiconductor Surfaces and Surface Steps", click on the "Get References" button below.


3. III-V Nitrides

Conventional (e.g. InxGa1-xN) isovalent substitution in III-V semiconductor compounds does not lead to appearance of deep electronic levels inside the band gap. However, P and As substituted for N in GaN induce deep triply degenerate levels well above the valence band maximum. The impurity-surrounding Ga atoms relax outwards and the defect level wavefunction is strongly localized, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Atomic relaxation (percent) and deep level electronic wavefunction for As-impurity in GaN.

An impurity pair is formed, when two P or As impurities occupy nearby N sites. As a result of the interaction of the electronic levels and elastic strain fields, the deep defect levels experience a large splitting. The resulting wavefunctions for the nearest-neighbor As-As pair are illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Gap wavefunctions for As-As impurity pair in GaN.

These results were derived using the state-of-the-art computational tools, utilizing ab initio total energy calculations and empirical plane-wave pseudopotential method.

Selected References on Nitrides:

  1. L. Bellaiche, S.H. Wei and A. Zunger, "Localization and Percolation in Semiconductor Alloys: GaAsN vs. GaAsP," Phys. Rev. B. 54, 17568-17576 (1996).

  2. L. Bellaiche, S.H. Wei and Alex Zunger, "Composition-dependence of I nterband Transition Intensities in Isoalent Semiconductor Alloys: GaPN vs GaPAs," Phys. Rev. B. 56, 10233-10240 (1997).

  3. L. Bellaiche, S. H. Wei and A. Zunger, "Band gaps of GaPN and GaAsN Alloys," Appl. Phys. Lett. 70, 3558-3560 (1997).

  4. L. Bellaiche, S.H. Wei and A. Zunger, "Bond Length Distribution in Tetrahedral vs. Octahedral Semiconductor Alloys: the Case of GaInN," Phys. Rev. B. 56, 13872-13877 (1997).

  5. L. Bellaiche and A. Zunger, "Effect of atomic short range order on the electronic and optical properties of GaAsN, GaInN and GaInAs alloys," Phys. Rev. B. 57, 4425 (1998).

  6. T. Mattila and A. Zunger, "Deep electronic gap levels induced by isovalent P and As impurities in GaN," Phys. Rev. B. 58, 1367 (1998).

  7. T. Mattila and A. Zunger, "P-P and As-As isovalent impurity pairs in GaN," Phys. Rev. B. 59, 9943-9953 (1999).

  8. T. Mattila and A. Zunger, "Predicted bond length variation in Wurtzite and Zinc-blende InGaN and AlGaN Alloys," J. Appl. Phys. 85, 160-167 (1999).

  9. T. Mattila, S.H. Wei and A. Zunger, "Electronic structure of sequence mutations in ordered GaInP2," Physical Review Letters 83, 2010-2013 (1999).

  10. T. Mattila, S.H. Wei and A. Zunger, "Localization and anticrossing of electron levels in GaAsN alloys," Phys. Rev. B 60, R11245-R11248, (1999).

  11. P. R. C. Kent and A. Zunger, " Evolution of III-V Nitride Alloy Electronic Structure: The Localized to Delocalized Transition " Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2613-2616 (2001).

  12. P. R. C. Kent and A. Zunger, "Theory of Electronic Structure Evolution of GaAsN and GaPN Alloys," Phys. Rev. B, in press, (2001).

Other References

For a listing of all SST references on the topic "Nitrides and the Zincblende/Wurtzite System", click on the "Get References" button below.