Materials Science and Engineering B 178 (2013) 1169–1177 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Science and Engineering B jou rn al hom ep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/mseb Review Ion-beam synthesis and characterization of narrow-gap A 3 B 5 nanocrystals in Si: Effect of implantation and annealing regimes F. Komarov a,∗ , L. Vlasukova a , O. Milchanin a , W. Wesch b , E. Wendler b , J. Zuk c , I. Parkhomenko a a Belarusian State University, Nezavisimosti Avenue 4, 220030 Minsk, Belarus b Institute for Solid State Physics, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany c Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, pl. M. Curie-Sklodowskiej 1, 20-031 Lublin, Poland a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 30 January 2013 Received in revised form 26 June 2013 Accepted 16 July 2013 Available online 8 August 2013 Keywords: Crystalline silicon High-fluence ion implantation Thermal treatment InAs and GaSb nanocrystals Structural defects TEM a b s t r a c t The process of InAs and GaSb nanoprecipitates creation in Si matrix using high-fluence ion implantation of species from groups V and III followed by thermal treatment has been investigated. We have studied in detail a complex system of defects and nanocrystals in implanted layers, have compared a damage level for both systems, evaluated the influence of implantation and annealing regimes on a size of A 3 B 5 nanocrystals and on a defect distribution in implanted layers. The crystalline nature of precipitates was identified by observing Moiré fringe patterns in TEM images, the Moiré period showing a tendency to increase with increasing size of inclusion. A “glowing” effect was observed at the nanocrystal/Si interfaces in the dark-field TEM images of the implanted and annealed samples, this being ascribed to the presence of misfit dislocation networks at the InAs/Si and GaSb/Si interfaces generated as a result of strain relaxation in the highly mismatched A 3 B 5 /Si systems. Also we compared our results on structural characterization of “A 3 B 5 nanocrystals–Si matrix” systems with other papers. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1169 2. Materials and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170 3. Results and discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170 3.1. Depth distribution of implanted atoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1170 3.2. Structural properties of Si layers implanted with As and In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1171 3.3. Structural properties of Si layers implanted with Sb and Ga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1175 4. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1176 Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1177 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1177 1. Introduction With increasing miniaturization, Si technology is approaching the physical limits determined by the properties of Si itself [1]. Currently, metal interconnects used in device production result in serious problems, such as heating, non-acceptable time delay of signals, time crosstalk and complexity of the manufacturing pro- cess [1,2]. Possible way to overcome these problems is a creation of on-chip optical interconnections. The quest is for an efficient light ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +375 172124833. E-mail address: komarovf@bsu.by (F. Komarov). source operating at room temperature and preferably emitting in a narrow wavelength range. Red or near-infrared light would be most suitable for communication purposes, a light-emitting source based on silicon being a radical solution [2–4]. Unfortunately, Si is not capable of operating as a light emitter due to its indirect band gap of about 1.1 eV [5]. This fact has motivated an intense research for light emitting materials which can be integrated into the current Si technology. Light-emitting diodes and lasers based on A 3 B 5 semi- conductors show excellent technical qualities, but their integration into a Si chip is associated with huge technical difficulties. It is impossible to grow high-quality epitaxial films of A 3 B 5 materials on Si wafers. Threading dislocations are usually formed at the geterojunctions due to a mismatch in lattice constants and thermal coefficients, even for a small lattice mismatch material 0921-5107/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mseb.2013.07.011