Molecular‐beam epitaxial growth and characterization of InSb on Si

InSb layers have been epitaxially grown on Si substrates by molecular‐beam epitaxy. Room‐temperature electron mobilities are 48 000 and 39 000 cm2/V s for 3.2‐μm‐thick InSb with and without GaAs buffers, respectively. The corresponding carrier concentrations are 2.2 ×1016 and 2.7 ×1016 cm−3. A sample with an 8‐μm thickness has room‐temperature mobilities as high as 55 000 cm2/V s with carrier concentrations of ∼2.0 ×1016 cm−3. A sharp band‐edge transmission spectrum is observed at room temperature for the 8‐μm layer. The photoluminescence spectrum of a 3.2‐μm InSb layer grown directly on Si shows a linewidth of 50 meV.