X-RAY-PHOTOELECTRON-DIFFRACTION STUDY OF INAS INP(001) HETEROSTRUCTURES/

The growth mode and the strain of InAs thin films grown on InP(001) we re measured by x-ray-photoelectron diffraction (XPD). Since the effect s of a (2X4) reconstruction at the InAs film surface may drastically o verlap those of the growth mode, we also investigated a (2X4) reconstr ucted GaAs(001) surface as a standard for this kind of reconstruction. It appears that this type of reconstruction does not induce significa nt effects on the polar angular distributions recorded within the (110 ) and the (110) planes. XPD measurements showed that the formation of thin InAs films on InP(001) by As stabilization is better described by a multilayer model of the InAs/InAsxP(1-x)/InP type than by a layer-b y-layer InAs/InP model. For the strained 10-angstrom-thick InAs film g rown on InP(001), the best agreement found between experiment and theo ry gives a vertical lattice expansion of 7.5%. This value is between 6 .1%, the expansion obtained from the macroscopic linear elasticity the ory, and 9.5%, the expansion obtained when assuming that the atomic bo nd length is retained.