No abstract

As an acceptor dopant with a solid:liquid distribution coefficient ks<1, iron is an example of an impurity which can be used in modest amounts to ensure that an adequate fraction of EL2 midgap defects are ionized along the length of a melt-grown GaAs crystal, as desired for semi-insulating behavior. The results of such deliberate doping with iron (when NFe is in the mid-1015 cm−3 range) are reported for crystals grown by both the liquid encapsulated Czochralski and the vertical gradient freeze methods. Except in the very tail region of such crystals (when NFe≳NEL2 and high resistivity p-type behavior results), GaAs with this modest iron modification to the compensation balance behaves with quite ordinary semi-insulating properties. The iron acceptors are then all ionized, and are optically ‘‘invisible.’’

Photoreflectance (PR) spectroscopy and Hall-effect measurements have been used for the analysis of a molecular beam epitaxially grown AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructure. The photoreflectance spectrum provided valuable information regarding the quality of the undoped GaAs, the aluminum composition of the AlGaAs layers, impurity diffusion, and the quantum well widths. Successive layer removal aided with the identification of some photoreflectance features and provided insight into the electrical transport properties of the heterostructure. Quantum well widths obtained from PR lineshape fits are compared with layer thicknesses measured from cross-sectional transmission electron micrographs.

Optical and electrical properties are described for bulk GaAs, grown from a melt doped with iron to create FeGa deep acceptors in a sufficient amount (exceeding the EL2 defect concentration) to make high-resistivity p-type rather than semi-insulating material. Both iron photoionization and EL2+ photoneutralization contribute to the near-infrared optical absorption. This made it possible to deduce the concentrations (NAi and NAn) of ionized and lattice-neutral iron, and the ratio (NAi/NAn). Temperature dependent measurements of dc electrical transport yielded quantities such as the free hole density, and hence the Fermi energy, for the 290–420 K range. This information combined with (NAi/NAn) led to a determination of the iron acceptor’s free energy εA(T): about 0.46 eV above the valence band at 300 K, and ∼40 meV closer at 420 K. The temperature dependence of εA for iron is shown to differ from εv, εc, midgap, or the free energy for CrGa acceptors in GaAs.

Spatial distributions of EL2 in undoped, semi-insulating GaAs crystals grown by a novel vertical gradient freeze (VGF) method are reported. As a result of the low-temperature gradients present during growth and post-solidification cooling, these crystals exhibit lower EL2 concentrations and lower dislocation densities than liquid-encapsulated Czochralski crystals. Both the EL2 distribution and dislocation density over the area of a wafer do not display the fourfold symmetric pattern prevalent for LEC-grown GaAs. The radial distributions of EL2 in as-grown VGF crystals have been found to be independent of the dislocation density. Axial and radial Hall-effect measurements are included. Thermal activation energies are also presented and the compensation mechanism for this material is discussed.