Nucleation and Defect Structures of GaAs Films Grown on Reactive Ion Etched Si Substrates

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe nucleation and interfacial defect structure of thin GaAs films grown on reactive ion etched Si substrates by normal molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and modulated molecular beam epitaxy (MMBE) at 300°C were studied by plan view and high resolution cross-sectional electron microscopy (TEM). Plan view TEM micrographs show a pronounced three-dimensional (3-d) island type nucleation for the MBE grown sample. A high density of microtwins is also found in these nucleated islands from high resolution cross-sectional TEM micrographs. The 3-d nucleation and the interfacial twinning is suppressed however in the MMBE grown samples. The FWHM of the (400) Bragg peak for 3 μm thick GaAs on Si films shows a reduction of 60 arcseconds when the initial buffer layer is grown by MMBE as compared to normal MBE.