Native point defects in low-temperature-grown GaAs

Abstract

We present structural and electronic data which indicate that the dominant defects in GaAs grown at low temperatures (LT GaAs) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are As antisites (AsGa) and Ga vacancies (VGa), with negligible amounts of As interstitials (Asi). We show that the change of lattice parameter correlates with the concentration of AsGa, and that AsGa alone can account for the lattice expansion. We also show that the total concentration of AsGa has a characteristic second power dependence on the concentration of AsGa in the positive charge state for the material grown at different temperatures. This can be understood provided that VGa defects are the acceptors responsible for the carrier compensation. Our results are consistent with most experimental results and the theoretical expectation from the calculation of defect formation energies. We find that the conclusion may also be true in As-rich bulk GaAs.