The paper reviews the plastic behaviour of III-V semiconductors under concentrated load and its implication for optoelectronic-device design. We consider first, fundamental aspects involved into the mechanical resistance to contact loading of semiconductor single crystals (elastic-plastic transition, strain field, hardness-yield relationship...). The paper then describes recent studies of applications aimed at improving the heterostructure quality used in optoelectronic applications and emphasizes the so-called mechanical design (alloying and compliant substructure). Semiconductor technology offers model materials with high crystalline quality while its demand for improving heterostructure quality is a challenge to the Materials Science community. The elastic-plastic transition and subsequent plastic flow under contact loading is complex and has been widely investigated. This is reviewed integrating most recent works made using instrumental nano-indentation that allows monitoring the penetration of a diamond tip as a function of the applied load. Furthermore, this technique allows deformation in the micro- and milli-newton regime so that fracture can be avoided and the first steps of plastic deformation can be investigated. In particular, the determination of the plastic onset and hence the yield strength is possible by investigating the transition between elastic and elastic-plastic regime and measuring the plastic zone size as a function of the applied load. Results for various III-V semiconductors are reported. On the other hand, the performance of heterostructures is directly dependent on the density of dislocations that relax the lattice mismatch between- the substrate and the layers. Nano-indentation allows for a better understanding of the plastic deformations in such structures and opens practical routes to improve the devices. For instance, to avoid the generation of threading dislocations, compliant substructures are now developed in order to concentrate the plastic relaxation underneath the heterostructure. Nano-indentation tests on such structures are reported and the results show that the yield strength of the substrate can be reduced using a compliant substructure. In fact, mechanical design of optoelectronic devices should be considered throughout the fabrication process.

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   |texte=   Plastic deformation of III-V semiconductors under concentrated load
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