Computational design of direct-bandgap semiconductors that lattice-match silicon

Crystalline silicon is an indirect-bandgap semiconductor, making it an inefficient emitter of light. The successful integration of silicon-based electronics with optical components will therefore require optically active (for example, direct-bandgap) materials that can be grown on silicon with high-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2001-01, Vol.409 (6816), p.69-71
Main Authors: Zhang, Peihong, Crespi, Vincent H., Chang, Eric, Louie, Steven G., Cohen, Marvin L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
Light
Materials science
multidisciplinary
Optical materials
Optics
Other nonlinear optical materials
photorefractive and semiconductor materials
Physics
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Semiconductors
Silicon
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Summary:Crystalline silicon is an indirect-bandgap semiconductor, making it an inefficient emitter of light. The successful integration of silicon-based electronics with optical components will therefore require optically active (for example, direct-bandgap) materials that can be grown on silicon with high-quality interfaces. For well ordered materials, this effectively translates into the requirement that such materials lattice-match silicon: lattice mismatch generally causes cracks and poor interface properties once the mismatched overlayer exceeds a very thin critical thickness. But no direct-bandgap semiconductor has yet been produced that can lattice-match silicon, and previously suggested structures 1 pose formidable challenges for synthesis. Much recent work has therefore focused on introducing compliant transition layers between the mismatched components 2 , 3 , 4 . Here we propose a more direct solution to integrating silicon electronics with optical components. We have computationally designed two hypothetical direct-bandgap semiconductor alloys, the synthesis of which should be possible through the deposition of specific group-IV precursor molecules 5 , 6 and which lattice-match silicon to 0.5–1% along lattice planes with low Miller indices. The calculated bandgaps (and hence the frequency of emitted light) lie in the window of minimal absorption in current optical fibres.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/35051054