Infrared absorption properties of the EL2 and the isolated AsGa defects in neutron-transmutation-doped GaAs: Generation of an EL2-like defect.

Abstract

The EL2 and the isolated ${\mathrm{As}}_{\mathrm{Ga}}$ antisite defects in neutron-transmutation-doped (NTD) GaAs were studied by using the infrared (ir) absorption technique concurrent with thermal annealing. The results show that irradiation with low thermal-neutron doses partially decomposes the EL2 complex in semi-insulating (si) GaAs grown by the liquid-encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) growth technique. On the other hand, a small amount of EL2 is generated in as-grown Ga-rich undoped p-type LEC GaAs. The EL2 defect in low-dose thermal-neutron-irradiated samples (both si and p-type) was found to be stable up to 850 \ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C. High neutron-irradiation doses, however, completely annihilate EL2 but generate a different EL2-like defect (DL2). The DL2 defect is observed after annealing the high-dose NTD samples for 6 min at 600 \ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C. The DL2 concentration is observed to be larger than that of EL2 in as-grown LEC si GaAs by a factor of 2.3 or higher. The photoquenching and thermal recovery properties of DL2 and EL2 defects are identical. However, the DL2 defect does not exhibit the same thermal stability or the zero-phonon line of the EL2 defect. Thermal annealing kinetics shows that DL2 is composed of three point defects. The residual absorption (unquenchable component) after photoquenching the EL2 (DL2) defect is interpreted as the photoionization of the isolated ${\mathrm{As}}_{\mathrm{Ga}}$ antisite. The present results support the identification of EL2 as a complex defect and cast further doubt on the validity of the model which identifies EL2 as the isolated ${\mathrm{AS}}_{\mathrm{Ga}}$ antisite defect.