Raman study of gallium arsenide thin films

The influence of deposition parameters on the structure of the gallium arsenide thin films was investigated by Raman scattering. The study was based on the analysis of the first-order Raman spectra which allows for a differentiation between the amorphous component and crystallites of various sizes. The amorphous and crystalline volume fractions were calculated from the integrated intensities of the deconvoluted peaks. It was demonstrated that a transition occurs from μ-GaAs to a-GaAs for particular plasma conditions and substrate temperature. As a function of the deposition parameters the entire range from mostly microcrystalline to completely amorphous films can be obtained. These properties were consistent with the results obtained on the same samples by transmission high-energy electron diffraction and conventional transmission electron microscopy.     

Hopping conduction in amorphous Nb2O5 thin films

The low field conduction mechanism in amorphous Nb₂O₅ doped with Nb is investigated by measurements of the ac conductivity as a function of frequency (3 Hz?6 × 10⁶ Hz), dc conductivity as a function of temperature (100–400 K), capacitance as a function of frequency (3 Hz?6 × 10⁶ Hz) and conductance G as a function of voltage at 10³ Hz. Loss tangent and quality factor data are also given because of their technical and scientific relevance. Evidence for hopping conduction at low applied fields is presented by the following results: (1) a monotonic increase in ac conductivity σ(ω)αωⁿ where 0.5 < n < 1.0 in the range 3 Hz?6 × 10⁶ Hz; (2) a linear dependence of current on voltage at low fields; and (3) low activation energy for dc conduction with a transition at 210 K to a still lower activation energy; and (4) a decrease in polarizability with frequency. At high fields, E > 10⁵ V/cm, dc conductivity is dominated by the field emission mechanism of the Poole-Frenkel or Poole type.     

Electrical conduction mechanisms in amorphous GeTe thin films

A measurement of potential distribution was carried out on amorphous GeTe thin films at various applied voltages. The potential falls steeply near the anode. The results were consistently explained with the hypothesis that the free carriers which flow away from the regions near the cathode and the anode into the inner part of the sample are not replenished by injected carriers. An estimate was made of the density of space-charge and of the free carrier concentration as a function of position. The fact that the distributions of both the potential and the free carrier concentration are nonuniform indicate that the diffusion current cannot be neglected. In the steady state, the observed current density as a function of applied field agrees well with the predictions of a theoretical model that includes both diffusion and drift currents.     

The growth of gallium arsenide films from a thin solution layer between substrates

The method of GaAs film growth from a solution between two substrates was considered. The calculated thickness as a function of growth temperature and distance between substrates was in a good agreement with experimental results. The investigation of the film roughness as a function of cooling rate, distance between substrates and their orientations was fulfilled. Electrical properties of the films as a function of substrate orientations in the interval (100)–(111)–(011) were demonstrated. The possibility of application of this method for the investigation of film doping as a function of temperature and growth rate was shown.     

EPD investigation in LEC-grown silicon-doped gallium arsenide

The EPD distribution is investigated in silicon-doped LEC-grown gallium arsenide crystals, 30 ÷ 40 mm in mainbody diameter and weighing within 300 ÷ 500 grams. The silicon-doping-dependent hardening effect, previously observed in S-doped and Bridgman grown silicon-doped gallium arsenide is here confirmed. The EPD decreasing with silicon-doping increase is observed to be less pronounced than in the case of S-doped and Bridgman grown silicon-doped samples and possible reasons for this different behaviour are discussed. In any case, a large microprecipitate density together with the EPD reduction appears as a clustering of shallow-pits around dislocation pits.     

Electrical conduction in amorphous WO3 films

Measurements are reported on the dc and ac conductivity and dielectric constant for vacuum-deposited films of tungsten trioxide. The behaviour is consistent with that expected for hopping conduction in an amorphous solid containing long-range potential centres associated with oxygen vacancies. A new method of calculating the density of states gives N(E) ～ 5.0 × 10²⁰ eV^?1 cm^?3.     

Precipitation of supersaturated chromium solutions in gallium arsenide

Transmission electron microscopy has been used to investigate precipitation processes in gallium arsenide doped with chromium and Cr₂O₃. Whatever the doping technique, at concentrations of chromium 4 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻³ the solid solution was observed to contain precipitates which grew, at least partially, due to the migration of substitutional atoms and their transformation into the precipitates. The process is accompanied by generation of vacancies from dislocation loops.     

The behaviour of copper on gallium arsenide

Cu has been reported to diffuse rapidly in GaAs at low temperatures (2.3×10^-5 cm² s^-1 at 600°C). The rapid diffusion is attributed to the interstitial movement of Cu atoms. The present investigation was undertaken to examine preferential diffusion of Cu⁺ along dislocations and grain boundaries in GaAs. The experiments consisted of depositing ⁶⁴Cu on a GaAs water surface, annealing in vacuum, and observing the Cu distribution by autoradiography. From these observations no preferential diffusion along dislocations or grain boundaries was detected in SI GaAs annealed between 600 and 1000°C. In the sample annealed above 800°C, the deposited Cu reacted with the GaAs forming a liquid on the sample surface, which solidified into complex Cu-Ga-As compounds. The liquid also produced Cu-rich pipes which extended through the GaAs wafer.     

Tin segregation and donor compensation in melt-grown gallium arsenide

Radio-tin-doped single crystals of GaAs have been grown by the LEC technique from melts of varying composition. Carrier concentration and Sn distribution determined by radio-counting and autoradiography are reported and analysed to show that Sn-related acceptors are incorporated to give a compensation ratio of N_A/N_D = 0.24+-0.03 independent of doping level and of melt composition. These concentrations are significantly in excess of a non-Sn-related residual acceptor - believed to be C_As - which is shown to be present in the crystals at a level of 1.6x10¹⁶ cm^-3. Modified Sheil plots are used to show that the melt composition appears to move progressively toward As-richness as growth proceeds. The distribution coefficient for tin in crystals growing from a stoichiometric melt is determined to be 4.0x10^-3.     

Micromorphology and defects of non-doped gallium arsenide layers

Electron microscopy was used to study non-doped GaAs layers obtained in a chloride system Ga-AsCl₃-H₂. Electron concentrations is 10¹³–10¹⁵ cm⁻³, mobility at liquid nitrogen temprature reaches 200000 cm²/v. sec. It is shown that a fraction of the growth surface taken with (110) faces is less for films with less electron concentration. The main type of defects in pure GaAs layers is precipitates at pinning centres of growth steps. Estimations based on microdiffraction patterns and irradiation effects show that the impurity concentration in them is 10¹⁶–10¹⁹ cm⁻³. The impurity in precipitates is assumed to be electrically non-active, mainly, in interstitial positions.     

Liquid phase epitaxial growth of undoped gallium arsenide from bismuth and gallium melts

Electrical properties of undoped GaAs layers grown from Ga and Bi melts under identical conditions are compared as a function of growth temperature and pregrowth baking time. Identification of residual shallow donors and acceptors is performed by means of laser photoelectrical magnetic spectroscopy and low temperature photoluminescence. It is shown that a change of solvent metal results in complete alteration of major background impurities in grown epilayers due, mainly, to changes of distribution coefficients of these impurities. High purity, low compensation n-GaAs layers can be grown from Bi melt (epilayers with the Hall mobility of electrons μ77K ≈ 150000 cm²/V · sat n = 2.5 · 10¹⁴ cm⁻³ has been grown).     

Growth temperature dependence in molecular beam epitaxy of gallium arsenide

Epitaxial layers of GaAs were grown on GaAs(100) at substrate temperatures ranging from 400° to 600°C by molecular beam epitaxy. Surface structures of the substrate and the epitaxial layers were investigated by means of low-energy electron diffraction. Two new structures of c(4 × 4) and c(8 × 8) were observed from layers grown at the low temperature of 400°C. The electrical and optical properties of layers doped with Si were investigated by measurement of Hall effect and photoluminescence as a function of growth temperature. It is found that a semi-insulating layer is grown below a critical temperature, and the layer is useful as a buffer layer for GaAs FET's. Variation of carrier concentration was observed near the interface between layers grown at different temperatures under a constant Sn beam flux. The effect is attributed to defect-induced segregation of Sn.     

X-ray diffraction study on amorphous gallium

Amorphous films of some μm in thickness, prepared by low temperature condensation in an ultra-high vacuum onto liquid helium cooled substrates, have been studied in situ by using an X-ray diffractometer operating in a symmetrical reflection mode. The structure factor of gallium has been obtained over the wavevector range 1.3 to 16.1 Å⁻ by means of two wavelengths, Cr_K and Mo_K, monochromatized by balanced filters. The average number of nearest neighbours deduced from the well-resolved first maximum in the radial distribution function is equal to 9.3 atoms. The results are compared to those previously found by electron diffraction measurements on thin films and also to the structure of supercooled liquid.     

Growth of gallium antimonide epitaxial layers on indium arsenide substrates

In the present work the possibility is demonstrated of growing gallium antimonide epitaxial layers on indium arsenide substrates using the liquid phase epitaxial (LPE) method. The influence is nivestigated of the growth conditions on the morphology of the surface and interface of the epitaxial structures InAs GaSb. The optimum technological regimes for growth of heterostructures in the system InAs GaSb are found.     

Low-temperature atomic assembly of stoichiometric gallium arsenide from equiatomic vapor

The low-temperature atomic assembly of homoepitaxial GaAs thin films on the (0 0 1) surface has been investigated using molecular dynamics with a Stillinger–Weber potential energy function. During equiatomic vapor deposition, crystalline growth was observed for substrate temperatures above 35% of the melting temperature. Below this temperature, the critical epitaxial thickness began to rapidly decrease as defects were increasingly incorporated and eventually nucleated an entirely amorphous structure. The atomic assembly mechanisms of arsenic dimer incorporation, as well as gallium vacancy formation, were studied just above the amorphous/crystalline growth transition temperature. The adsorption of arsenic dimers was found to show dependence upon the orientation of the deposited molecule. Atomic processes responsible for the formation of the gallium vacancy defects were observed, and the influence of growth temperature on defect formation was also identified.     

Nature of dislocations promoting growth in liquid phase epitaxy of gallium arsenide

Dislocations promoting growth in the course of liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) of GaAs layers on GaAs substrates are analysed by X-ray topography. The Burgers vectors are determined by comparing double-crystal back-reflection images with calculated misorientations taking into account surface relaxation. Any dislocation which generates a spiral of elementary steps is found to have a Burgers vector component parallel to the macroscopic growth direction. The nature of these growth promoting dislocations may be between pure screw and pure edge type. Defects which might be responsible for the generation of the observed concentric growth step patterns are below the detection limit of current X-ray topography.     

Device quality epitaxial gallium arsenide grown by the metal alkyl-hydride technique

Good vapour-phase epitaxial gallium arsenide on gallium arsenide can readily be obtained using trimethylgallium and arsine. The system is rapid and economical to use. Undoped material can be n or p-type with a carrier concentration of less than 5 × 10¹⁵ cm^?3. The best n-type material had a room temperature mobility of 6260 cm² sec^?1 V^?1, and for the best p-type material it was 385 cm² sec^?1V^?1. Material can be controllably doped n-type with sulphur. Multiple sub-micron n⁺ and n on p layers have been grown and used to fabricate Schottky barrier field effect transistors (FET). Material with good photocathode properties was grown by doping strongly p-type with dimethyl zinc.     

A novel technique to reduce the concentration of carbon in LEC gallium arsenide

An in-situ method has been developed to reduce the concentration of carbon in the liquid encapsulated growth of gallium arsenide. Sublimated As₂O₃ was bubbled through a GaAs melt to remove carbon via the production of CO₂. When a melt of known high starting carbon concentration ( 30 × 10¹⁴ atoms/cm³) was bubbled with As₂O₃, the subsequent crystal contained 4 × 10 ¹⁴ carbon atoms/cm³. This low carbon crystal was subsequently carbon doped and regrown, demonstrating the ability to return As₂O₃ treated GaAs to desired carbon concentrations and electrical properties.