I n s i t u scanning microprobe reflection high-energy electron diffraction observation of GaAs surfaces during molecular-beam epitaxial growth

Abstract

A specially designed molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) system with scanning microprobe reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) has been developed. The incident electron beam is designed to focus down to 10 nm in diameter and scan the surface of the substrate under MBE growth conditions. Using the RHEED intensity variation produced by the scanning of the incident beam, we obtain a microscopic image, i.e., which is the scanning reflection electron microscope (SREM) image, highly sensitive to the surface structure. The SREM images of GaAs(001) using the specular beam spot revealed granular features over the entire surfaces of MBE-grown GaAs layers which come from undulations of the surface. The undulation wavelength was typically 0.1–0.5 μm and developed along [1̄10] direction during MBE growth at 570 °C. At higher substrate temperatures, little development of the undulation was observed. As an overall feature of MBE growth, two-dimensional layer-by-layer growth was observed over the whole surface having undulations.