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. 2022 Oct 28;15(21):7597.
doi: 10.3390/ma15217597.

Metal-Semiconductor AsSb-Al0.6Ga0.4As0.97Sb0.03 Metamaterial

Nikolay Bert  1 , Vitaliy Ushanov  1 , Leonid Snigirev  1 , Demid Kirilenko  1 , Vladimir Ulin  1 , Maria Yagovkina  1 , Valeriy Preobrazhenskii  2 , Mikhail Putyato  2 , Boris Semyagin  2 , Igor Kasatkin  3 , Vladimir Chaldyshev  1
Affiliations

Metal-Semiconductor AsSb-Al0.6Ga0.4As0.97Sb0.03 Metamaterial

Nikolay Bert et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

AlGaAsSb and AlGaAs films as thick as 1 μm with Al content as high as 60% were successfully grown by low-temperature (200 °C) MBE. To overcome the well-known problem of growth disruption due to a high aluminum content and a low growth temperature, we applied intermittent growth with the temperature elevation to smooth out the emerging roughness of the growth front. Post-growth annealing of the obtained material allowed us to form a developed system of As or AsSb nanoinclusions, which occupy 0.3-0.6% of the material volume. While the As nanoinclusions are optically inactive, the AsSb nanoinclusions provide a strong optical absorption near the band edge of the semiconductor matrix due to the Fröhlich plasmon resonance. Owing to the wider bandgap of the grown Al0.6Ga0.4As0.97Sb0.03 compound, we have expanded the spectral range available for studying the Fröhlich plasmon resonance. The grown metamaterial represents an optically active medium of which the formation process is completely compatible with the epitaxial growth technology of semiconductors.

Keywords: AsSb nanoparticles; low-temperature MBE; metal-semiconductor composite; microstructure; plasmon resonance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Experimental (black and red curves) and simulated (blue curves) XRD profiles around the 004 reflection of the GaAs substrate with (a) LT-GaAs, (b) LT-GaAs0.97Sb0.03, (c) LT-Al0.6Ga0.4As and (d) LT-Al0.6Ga0.4As0.97Sb0.03 layers before (black curves) and after (red curves) annealing at 600 °C. The curves related to the as-grown sample are shifted up for clarity.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Experimental (black and red curves) and simulated (blue curves) XRD profiles around the 004 reflection of the GaAs substrate with (a) LT-GaAs, (b) LT-GaAs0.97Sb0.03, (c) LT-Al0.6Ga0.4As and (d) LT-Al0.6Ga0.4As0.97Sb0.03 layers before (black curves) and after (red curves) annealing at 600 °C. The curves related to the as-grown sample are shifted up for clarity.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Bright-field cross-sectional TEM micrographs of the samples annealed at 600 °C: (a) LT-GaAs ([110] zone axes); (b) LT-GaAs0.97Sb0.03 (two-beam conditions, g = 220). The insets are high-resolution images of individual nanoinclusions.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cross-sectional TEM micrographs of (a) LT-Al0.6Ga0.4As (002 dark-field); (b) LT-Al0.6Ga0.4As0.97Sb0.03 (220 bright-field) the samples annealed at 600 °C.
Figure 4
Figure 4
LT-Al0.6Ga0.4As0.97Sb0.03 layer annealed at 600 °C: (a) Transmission electron micrograph in the STEM-HAADF mode; (b) Sb distribution map of the same area collected by EDXS.
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) Electron diffraction pattern and (b) micrograph acquired using the reflex of the second phase marked with dashed circle in panel (a). The data are for the layer of LT-Al0.6Ga0.4As0.97Sb0.03 annealed at 600 °C.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Spectra of the optical extinction coefficient for the LT-GaAs and LT-GaAs0.97Sb0.03 samples before and after annealing at different temperatures.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Optical extinction spectra of LT-Al0.6Ga0.4As (black) and LT-Al0.6Ga0.4As0.97Sb0.03 (red) films annealed at 600 °C for 15 min.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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