STUDY BY AES AND EELS OF InP, InSb, InPO4 AND InxGa1-xAs SUBMITTED TO ELECTRON IRRADIATION

Abstract

The surface of materials plays an important role in their technological applications. In the interest to study the stability of materials and their behavior, we irradiate them by the electrons by using the electron spectroscopy such as the Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and the electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). These methods have proved their good sensitivity to study material surfaces. In this paper, we give some results about the effect of the electron beam irradiating the compounds InP , InSb , InPO4 and In x Ga 1-x As . The III–V semiconductors InP and InSb seem to be sensitive to the electron irradiation. This breaks the chemical bonds between the element III and V which leads to an oxidation process at the surface. The AES and EELS spectroscopy are also used to characterize the oxide InPO4 whose thickness is about 10 Å grown on the substrate InP (100). The irradiation of the system InPO4/InP(100) by the electron beam of 5 keV energy leads to a structural change of the surface, so that there is breaking of chemical bonds between indium and phosphorus (In–P) and formation of new oxide other than InPO4 . In this study we show an important result concerning the effect of the electron beam on the compound In x Ga 1-x As by varying the parameter x to obtain In0.2Ga0.8As and In0.53Ga0.47As . It appears that the electron beam affects In0.2Ga0.8As too much in comparison with In0.53Ga0.47As . In the case of the irradiation of In0.2Ga0.8As , there is breaking of chemical bonds between indium and GaAs leading to formation of indium oxide associated to GaAs .