INTERFACE PROFILE OPTIMIZATION IN NOVEL SURFACE PASSIVATION SCHEME FOR INGAAS NANOSTRUCTURES USING SI INTERFACE CONTROL LAYER

This paper attempts to control and optimize the interface atomic profiles of a novel surface passivation scheme for InGaAs nanostructures, using a silicon interface control layer (ICL). An in-situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization technique was used to establish a process sequence that satisfies the conditions of maintenance of pseudomorphic matching to InGaAs, prevention of direct oxidation of InGaAs, and formation of a good SiO2/Si interface with minimal suboxide components. It is shown that the above conditions can be -satisfied by a new process that is a formation of the thermal SiO2 at the SiO2-Si interface by repetition of deposition/oxidation/annealing cycle. A large reduction of interface state density (N(SS)) was realized by the optimization of the new process, resulting in a minimum N(SS) of 4 x 10(11) CM-2 eV-1. The silicon ICL technique was successfully applied to the passivation of InGaAs wire structures.