Heterojunction (HJ) diodes nGaAs/pSi have been fabricated from GaAs-on
-Si heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy and exhibited sur
prisingly ideal characteristics, despite the high density of misfit di
slocations in the GaAs/Si interface. For n approximate to p approximat
e to 10(16) cm(-3) an ideality factor, n, of 1.06 was determined from
I-V measurements at 300 K while an intercept voltage V-int = 0.82 V wa
s obtained from 1/C-2-V plots, approaching closely the 0.82 V value pr
edicted for the junction's built-in voltage according to Anderson's mo
del (Delta E(v) = 0.32, eV and Delta E(c) = 0.02 eV; Delta E(c) equals
the difference in GaAs and Si electron affinity values). HJ diodes wi
th n = 8 X 10(16) cm(-3) and p = 7 X 10(14) cm(-3) were also grown on
cm vicinal (100) substrates with various tilting angles (0-9 degrees)
and prelayer conditions. They all exhibited almost the same V-int = 0.
68 V, while n varied between 1.13-1.26, being best for the GaAs/Si het
erostructure which exhibited the lowest threading dislocation density.
Tile results are encouraging for the incorporation of GaAs/Si heteroj
unctions into real device Structures.