The gas source molecular beam epitaxial growth of AlxGa1−xP on (100) GaP

Abstract

The growth of AlxGa1−xP for Al mole fractions between 0 and 1 has been achieved on (100) GaP substrates using gas source molecular beam epitaxy with elemental Ga and Al, and P2 cracked from PH3 as the source materials. The observed reflection high energy electron diffraction pattern of the GaP surface indicates that an exponential increase in the incident P2 flux is required to maintain good morphology beyond 690 °C. This temperature was found to correspond closely to the congruent vaporization temperature of Ga from the growth surface. The addition of Al on the surface was found to substantially increase the Ga congruent vaporization temperature from the GaP surface. The growth rates for AlxGa1−xP as a function of growth temperature between 600 and 750 °C were determined by transmission electron microscopy. Using elemental Si as an n-type dopant, free electron concentrations as high as 1.65×1019 cm−3 in GaP and 1.5×1019 cm−3 in Al0.28Ga0.72P were achieved.