Mutual Passivation of Donors and Isovalent Nitrogen in GaAs

Abstract

We study the mutual passivation of shallow donor and isovalent N in GaAs. We find that all the donor impurities, SiGa, GeGa, SAs, and SeAs, bind to N in GaAs:N, which has a large N-induced band-gap reduction relative to GaAs. For a group-IV impurity such as Si, the formation of the nearest-neighbor SiGa-NAs defect complex creates a deep donor level below the conduction band minimum (CBM). The coupling between this defect level with the CBM pushes the CBM upwards, thus restoring the GaAs band gap; the lowering of the defect level relative to the isolated SiGa shallow donor level is responsible for the increased electrical resistivity. Therefore, Si and N mutually passivate each other's electrical and optical activities in GaAs. For a group-VI shallow donor such as S, the binding between SAs and NAsdoes not form a direct bond; therefore, no mutual passivation exists in the GaAs:(S+N) system.