Nucleation of Gaas on Vicinal Si(100) Surfaces

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe investigate the nucleation of epitaxial GaAs grown on vicinal Si(100) surfaces by Molecular Beam Epitaxy. We find that the vicinal surface structure is highly sensitive to the surface cleaning process, and that in-situ desorption of a volatile surface oxide at 900°C appears to result in significant step mobility, resulting in the formation of low angle surface facets. Nucleation of GaAs then occurs on these facets, raising the possibilty of influencing the heteroepitaxial nucleation and growth processes by influencing the substrate surface “template” at the surface cleaning stage.