Improvement in surface morphology of GaSb buffer layer by two-step high and low temperature growth

Abstract

The surface morphology of GaSb was investigated by changing growth conditions such as thermal oxide desorption temperature, growth temperature, and growth step by solid source molecular beam epitaxy. At high temperature growth, the pits caused by the thermal oxide desorption remained in the GaSb buffer layer surface, while the surface was sufficiently flattened. At low temperature growth, the pits disappeared, while the surface was not enough flattened even in the case of step-flow mode growth. Since the pits disappeared at lower growth temperature regardless of the growth mode, this behavior might be explained by the Ga migration length depending on the growth temperature. By applying two-step high/low temperature growth, where both growth steps proceed in step-flow mode, flat, a pit-free GaSb buffer surface could be obtained.