Effect of surfactants on strength of gallium arsenide single crystals

Abstract

Optical resonators of heterojunction lasers essentially involve (110) cleavage surfaces. Cleaving single crystals, however, is a difficult procedure, whereas its quality largely determines the life of the resonators. Surfactants showing no chemisorption on the surface of single crystals may decrease the number of defects brought about by cleaving (Rehbinder effect). Again, it is not easy to find an appropriate surfactant for this procedure, since this is done semiempirically. The present paper deals with strength measurements of GaAs single crystals in the presence of surfactants and the selection of an optimum medium for cleaving.