Effects of melt composition on structural and electrical characteristics of LEC Si-doped gallium arsenide

The aim of this paper is that of briefly reviewing the experimental observations carried out on Si-doped gallium arsenide grown from off-stoichiometry melts (either Ga- or Asrich) in the author's laboratory. It will be shown that the melt composition strongly affect the electrical (electron mobility, density of deep levels) and structural (dislocation density, precipitates) properties of the bulk crystals which proves the existence of a link between point defects and physical and crystallographic characteristics. The experimental results will be discussed considering recent literature reports on point defects in bulk GaAs.