The heteroepitaxial growth of vacuum-deposited GaP thin films on Si substrates

Heteroepitaxial GaP thin films were grown on (100) and (111)Si substrates by vacuum evaporation of the compound GaP and their structural characteristics were compared with homoepitaxial GaP films grown by the same technique on (100)GaP substrates. Nearly monocrystalline GaP thin films were deposited reproducibly on (100)Si substrates at the optimum substrate temperature of about 680–700°C and the deposition rate of 0.1 nms⁻¹. The structure of such films was comparable in quality to homoepitaxial GaP/GaP films. No monocrystalline films could be deposited on (111)Si substrates.