Shape-controlled single-crystal growth of InP at low temperatures down to 220 ℃

III-V compound semiconductors are widely used for electronic and
optoelectronic applications. However, interfacing III-Vs with other
materials has been fundamentally limited by the high growth temperatures
and lattice-match requirements of traditional deposition processes.
Recently, we developed the templated liquid phase (TLP) crystal growth
method for enabling direct growth of shape-controlled single crystal
III-Vs on amorphous substrates. Although in theory, the lowest temperature
for TLP growth is that of the melting point of the group III metal (e.g.
156.6 ºC for indium), previous experiments required a minimum growth
temperature of 500 ºC, thus being incompatible with many
application-specific substrates. Here, we demonstrate low temperature TLP
(LT-TLP) growth of single-crystalline InP patterns at substrate
temperatures down to 220 °C by first activating the precursor, thus
enabling the direct growth of InP even on low thermal budget substrates
such as plastics and indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coated glass. Importantly, the
material exhibits high electron mobilities and good optoelectronic
properties as demonstrated by the fabrication of high-performance
transistors and light-emitting devices. Furthermore, this work may enable
integration of III-Vs with silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor
(CMOS) processing for monolithic 3D integrated circuits and/or back-end
electronics.