We report a detailed study of molecular beam epitaxial growth of GaAs films
on vicinal Ge(0 0 1). Reflection high-energy electron diffraction was used
to examine the atomic structures of the epitaxial surfaces. By using RHEED
technique we show that clean Ge(OO 1) vicinal surface has (1 x 2) single-d
omain reconstruction and consists of double-layer steps. After the depositi
on of Ga submonolayer coverage, transformation from double to single-layer
stepped surface was observed. Transmission electron microscopy reveals a hi
gh density of anti-phase domains in the GaAs epitaxial films grown on singl
e-stepped Ga covered Ge(0 0 1) vicinal surfaces and anti-phase domain free
GaAs was grown on a double-layer stepped clean Ge(0 0 1). (C) 1999 Elsevier
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