A SURFACE AND INTERFACE STUDY ON THE INSB GAAS HETEROSTRUCTURES/

This paper reports a surface and interface study of indium antimonide epitaxially grown on gallium arsenide using metalorganic magnetron spu ttering technique. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis shows tha t the original surface of InSb is composed of InSb, In2O3, and Sb2O3, and the binding energy of Sb 3d(5/2) decreases when an antimony atom i s surrounded by more indium atoms. The interdiffusion phenomenon is st udied by both Anger electron spectroscopy depth profiling and Rutherfo rd backscattering spectroscopy, the results of which are in good agree ment. The width of the interdiffusion region is around 900 +/- 100 Ang strom, and independent of epilayer thickness. X-ray diffraction study indicates that the crystallinity of the InSb epilayer becomes better w ith the increase of epilayer thickness. It is also demonstrated that t he crystal orientation relationship between the InSb epilayer and GaAs substrate is (100) InSb//(100) GaAs, and the (100) crystal planes of InSb and GaAs are parallel to the macro-surface of the InSb/GaAs heter ostructure. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.