Correlation of Surface Morphologies with Mn Compositions of Ga1-xMnxAs Epilayers Grown by Liquid Phase Epitaxy

Abstract

AbstractIn this letter, we investigated the correlation between as-grown surface morphologies and Mn compositions of Ga1-xMnxAs epilayers - a III-V diluted magnetic semiconductor - grown by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). Ga1-xMnxAs epilayers were grown at 595 °C from 50 % Ga + 50 % Bi mixed solvent. The grown layers were characterized by energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDS) and atomic forced microscopy (AFM). The Mn composition measured by EDS after growth process was varied from 1 to 7 %. As increasing Mn composition surface morphologies of as-grown Ga1-xMnxAs epilayers were varied. At higher Mn compositions, the morphology of the surface layers degrades strongly, preventing removal of the solution-melt from it. Key words: LPE, as-grown, surface morphology, Mn composition, Ga1-xMnxAs, energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (EDS), atomic forced microscopy (AFM).