KINETICS OF DOPANT ACCUMULATION IN THE ADSORPTION LAYER DURING MOLECULAR-BEAM EPITAXY

Abstract

A kinetic model of the doping processes in molecular beam epitaxy is developed. The dopant incorporation into the growing crystal is assumed to occur via both blocking dopant atoms at the kink positions by the host atoms and atomic exchange between dopant adatoms and atoms of the topmost crystalline layer. The dopant surface segregation is treated as accumulation of dopant atoms in energetically favorable adsorption positions on the surface. Two segregation pathways are considered: climbing of dopant adatoms over moving steps and jumping of the dopants out of the topmost crystalline layer. It is shown that increasing supersaturation in the adlayer, e.g. with decreasing temperature or increasing growth rate, leads to more efficient blocking of the dopant atoms and, as a consequence, to the decreasing surface segregation. The supersaturation is partially reduced with appearance of 2D islands on the terraces and creation of kinks at the 2D island edges. This results in weaker growth rate and temperature dependences of the surface segregation ratio. Very strong (superexponential) dependence of the surface segregation ratio on the growth temperature is possible under the condition of the intensive jumping of the dopants out of the topmost crystalline layer. The reason is that the probability of «immurement» of the dopant atoms by the moving step depends exponentially on the jumping-out rate constant. The model reproduces experimentally observed segregation behavior of Sb on Si(100).