NUAGES: Nucleation and growth of III-V on Si explored in situ

November 2021 – October 2025

Project ANR-21-CE24-0006 (ANR)

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This project aims at carrying out in situ investigations to elucidate the formation of heteroepitaxial III-V/Si defects, to follow in real-time their structural evolution and to identify strategies to tackle them.

Context

Integrating III-V compound semiconductors on (001) Si substrates is a long-standing challenge, which has driven many researches for the past 40 years. This integration is a route to decrease significantly the fabrication cost of many devices since the standard Si industrial processes offer the advantages of a cheaper and larger substrate. In addition, a large portfolio of passive photonic devices and their mature fabrication technology are available on the Si platform. This gives greater flexibility to design photonics integrated circuits (PICs) as compared to the pure III-V technologies and opens a number of possibilities for e.g. lasers, photovoltaic energy production, or energy storage via solar hydrogen production. In this context, the epitaxy of III-V semiconductors on Si (001) is highly strategic, but the numerous crystalline defects created from the nucleation stage are an obstacle to the development of photonics on Si.

Goals

In the NUAGES project, we propose to carry out in situ investigations to elucidate the formation of heteroepitaxial III-V/Si defects, to follow in real-time their structural evolution and to identify strategies to tackle them. We will configure the NanoMAX instrument (a transmission electron microscope equipped with molecular beam sources) to reach these objectives. Initial conditions will mimic those used in conventional MBE chambers and in turn, conditions optimized in NanoMAX will be applied to the growth of device heterostructures. The interpretation of the in situ observations will be supported by DFT calculations, ex situ characterization and by measuring the performance of devices fabricated with optimal nucleation conditions.

Stages

The NUAGES project follows the ANR project ANTIPODE which ended in 2018, aiming at clarifying III-V/Si nucleation & growth processes.

Scientific production

Partners

C2N (Paris-Saclay), Inst. FOTON (Rennes), IES (Montpellier).

Coordinator

Gilles PATRIARCHE (C2N)

Coordinateur iFOTON: Charles CORNET (Foton-OHM)

Funding

ANR (425 k€)

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