Scanning tunneling microscope study of GaAs(001) surfaces grown by migration enhanced epitaxy

Abstract

We report an investigation of the morphology of p-type GaAs(001) surfaces using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The substrates were prepared using two methods: migration enhanced epitaxy (MEE) and standard molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). The STM measurements were performed ex situ using As decapping. Analysis indicates that the overall step density of the MEE samples decreases as the growth temperature is increased. Nominally flat samples grown at 300 °C exhibited step densities of 10.5 steps/1000 Å along [110] dropping to 2.5 steps at 580 °C. MEE samples exhibited a lower step density than MBE samples. However as-grown surfaces exhibited a larger distribution of step heights. Annealing the samples reduced the step height distribution exposing fewer atomic layers. Samples grown by MEE at 580 °C and annealed for 2 min displayed the lowest step density and the narrowest step height distribution. All samples displayed an anisotropic step density. We found a ratio of A-type to B-type steps of between 2 and 3 which directly reflects the difference in the incorporation energy at steps. The aspect ratio increased slightly with growth temperature. We found a similar aspect ratio on samples grown by MBE. This indicates that anisotropic growth during MEE, like MBE, is dominated by incorporation kinetics. MEE samples grown at 580 °C and capped immediately following growth exhibited a number of ‘‘holes’’ in the surface. The holes could be eliminated by annealing the surface prior to quenching.