Reflection high-energy electron diffraction oscillations during molecular-beam epitaxy growth of gallium antimonide, aluminum antimonide, and indium arsenide

TLDR: In this article, reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) intensity oscillations were observed during the molecular beam epitaxy growth of gallium antimonide (GaSb), aluminum antimonyide (AlSb) and indium arsenide (InAs) compounds.

Abstract: We report the observation of reflection high‐energy electron diffraction (RHEED) intensity oscillations during the molecular‐beam epitaxy growth of gallium antimonide (GaSb), aluminum antimonide (AlSb), and indium arsenide (InAs). For GaSb, these oscillations were not observed at the normal substrate temperature used for growth of these compounds (500–550 °C), but only at lower temperatures. For continuous growth of AlSb at lower temperatures, the RHEED oscillations persist for ∼40 monolayers. For AlSb and GaSb, the recovery of RHEED oscillation amplitude after growth interruption is quite different from the recovery, if any, of specular spot intensity. The RHEED oscillations for AlSb were observed at 570 °C after growth of as little as 350 A of AlSb, which was nucleated directly on a GaAs substrate. Oscillations were seen in spite of the large lattice mismatch (7% with GaAs) and the large number of dislocations present (>109 cm−2). We have studied the effects of varying growth rates and flux ratios. The ...