THE INFLUENCE OF PHOSPHORUS, ARSENIC AND ANTIMONY VAPOR AMBIENTS ON THE DIFFUSION OF ZINC INTO GALLIUM-ARSENIDE

Diffusion of Zn at high concentrations into GaAs under As-deficient am bient conditions causes generation of crystal defects like dislocation loops, elongated dislocations and Ga precipitates decorated with void s throughout the diffusion zone. Similar treatments under As vapour le ad to recovery from diffusion-induced damage in a region underneath th e GaAs surface. This feature is accompanied by the appearance of two d istinct steps in the Zn concentration profile. Previous experiments su ggested these phenomena to be connected with out-diffusion of Ga from the precipitates towards the surface. The present work shows that the replacement of As by P or Sb in the diffusion environment produces sim ilar recovery effects. This observation provides evidence that ambient Group V elements render near-surface GaAs to an effective sink for di ffusion-induced excess