Effects of surface reconstruction on III-V semiconductor interface formation: The role of III/V composition

Using molecular-beam epitaxy and in situ scanning tunneling microscopy, we demonstrate how different reconstructions associated with different III-V g rowth surfaces can create interfacial roughness, and that an understanding of this phenomenon can be used to control the roughness on the atomic scale . Specifically, the different compositions of a clean InAs(001)-(2 X 4) sur face (V/III=0.5 ML/0.75 ML) and an Sb-terminated one (similar to 1.7 ML/1 M L) cause the InSb-like interfacial surface to have a bilevel morphology. Th is surface roughness can be eliminated by depositing additional In to exact ly compensate for the difference. It is likely that similar types of roughn ess occur in all heterostructures where the growth surface reconstruction c hanges at the interfaces, and that a similar procedure will be equally effe ctive at reducing that roughness. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [ S0003-6951(99)01112-2].