Abstract:Indium antimonide (InSb) has garnered significant attention due to its exceptional performance in various fields, including infrared detection, high-speed electronics, and quantum computing. This paper explores the heteroepitaxial growth of InSb thin films on Si(111) vicinal substrates and investigates their photoconductive characteristics. In an attempt to address the lattice mismatch and thermal expansion coefficient discrepancy between Si and InSb, a Bi buffer layer was employed in conjunction with a two-step growth strategy, enabling the successful fabrication of high-quality single-crystalline InSb(111) thin films on planar Si(111) substrates. However, on Si(111) vicinal substrates exhibiting a high-density step structure, the grown Bi(001) buffer layers exhibited numerous antiphase domain defects, leading to the formation of polycrystalline InSb thin films on these surfaces. The fabricated InSb/Bi/Si heterostructures displayed a negative photoconductivity effect under simulated solar illumination, which we attribute to the trapping of photogenerated charge carriers in the interfacial states of the heterostructure.
