Modeling of Atom Diffusion and Segregation in Semiconductor Heterostructures

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe propose a new approach for modeling of impurity diffusion at semiconductor heterointerfaces. The approach is based on the notion of a common energy reference for highly localized defects. It is shown that in the kick-out process, the segregation of group II acceptors is controlled by the valence band offsets among different constituent layers of the heterostructure. Extensive numerical modeling of the diffusion provides an explanation for the experimentally observed strong segregation of Zn and Be acceptors in the lattice matched InP/InGaAs, InP/InGaAsP and GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures.