Defect investigations in plastically deformed gallium arsenide

The defect formation during plastic deformation of GaAs has been investigat ed by means of the analysis of stress-strain curves including relaxation ex periments and positron lifetime spectroscopy. The deformation creates a mix ture of dislocations and point defects, which contribute to the positron li fetime spectra. Vacancy clusters can already be formed at rather low deform ation temperatures via jog dragging. The concentration of generated defects depends on the number of activated slip systems for single-slip or multipl e-slip orientation of the deformation axis. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.