Conductivity type and crystal orientation of GaAs nanocrystals in silicon

Semiconductors quantum dots of the size in the range of the exciton Bohr radius or smaller are very attractive objects, both for research and application, due to their special optical and electrical properties. In this paper we present investigations of microstructural, electrical and optical properties of GaAs quantum dots (QDs) formed in silicon. The GaAs QDs were obtained by means of sequential ion implantation and flash lamp annealing (FLA). It is shown that the crystallographic orientation of nanocrystals (NCs) and their size can be controlled by varying the annealing parameters. Besides the crystallographic orientation the conductivity type of the GaAs NCs can be controlled as well. The influence of the post implantation millisecond-range annealing on the evolution of the nanoparticles size, shape, crystallographic orientation and doping type of GaAs QDs is discussed.