Investigation into the Influence of a Buffer Layer of Nanoporous Silicon on the Atomic and Electronic Structure and Optical Properties of AIIIN/por-Si Heterostructures Grown by Plasma-Activated Molecular-Beam Epitaxy

Abstract

The influence of using a buffer sublayer of nanoporous por-Si on the morphological, physical, and structural properties of nanocolumnar In_xGa_{1 –x}N structures fabricated by plasma-activated molecular-beam epitaxy on single-crystal Si(111) substrates is shown. Using a set of structural-spectroscopic analytical methods, the electronic structure of the grown heterostructures, morphology, and optical properties are investigated, and the interrelations between them are established. It is shown that the use of a por-Si sublayer makes it possible to attain a more uniform distribution of diameters of In_xGa_{1 –x}N nanocolumns and to increase the photoluminescence intensity of the latter.