| Silicon has perhaps, more than any other single element in the periodic table, played a critical role in shaping the information and technological age for which the 20th century will be remembered. Innovative technological applications designed to enhance every facet of our lives have vastly exceeded the predictions of our forebears. These advances have been predicated on the intrinsic merits of Si as a semiconductor. Scientists and engineers working in optoelectronics have for some time been aware of the even more potent applications possible with laboratory synthesized semiconductor compounds made from elements of the group III-V variety (e.g. GaAs and InP). However, fundamental obstacles have prevented researchers from realizing such III-V materials on Si substrates (and vice versa) in order to harness the strengths of both materials.; This dissertation introduces a new technology that (in all the tests performed thus far) solves the material-incompatibility problem. It is demonstrated that a thin-film ({dollar}sim{dollar}30A-100A) single-crystal semiconductor, when wafer-bonded to a bulk single-crystal semiconductor substrate at a misaligned angle, can comply to the lattice-constant of a different semiconductor crystal grown on its surface.; Compliant substrates were made out of GaAs, and a variety of lattice-mismatched single-crystal films were grown on them including {dollar}rm Insb{lcub}0.35{rcub}Gasb{lcub}0.65{rcub}P{dollar} (1% tension), GaSb (8% compression), InSb (14.7% compression), and {dollar}rm Insb{lcub}0.22{rcub}Gasb{lcub}0.78{rcub}As/Insb{lcub}0.42{rcub}Gasb{lcub}0.58{rcub}As{dollar} (1.5% compression). These films were found to be practically dislocation-free except in the GaSb case where a relatively thick twist-film was used. Bright-field and dark-field transmission electron micrographs of the films are presented. X-ray diffraction, and optical properties measured of the compliant substrates found them to be promising as universal and robust substrates. |
