Physical properties of (GaAs)1 − x(Ge2)x: Influence of growth direction Article uri icon

abstract

  • (GaAs)1-x(Ge2)x metastable alloys were epitaxially grown on (001), (111), (112), and (113) GaAs by rf magnetron sputtering. A different long-range order parameter behavior with Ge concentration is observed for each growth direction. This provides a direct evidence that growth direction affects the long-range order-disorder transition exhibited by these alloys. The epitaxial growth of these alloys was modeled by a Monte Carlo simulation. The good agreement between the experimental and modeled long-range order parameter evidences that atomic ordering in these alloys is ruled mainly by growth direction and the avoidance of the formation of “wrong” atomic pairs of As-As and Ga-Ga, and not by thermodynamic factors. On the other hand, measurements of the optical gap and Raman scattering, show that the optical properties are governed by near-neighbor correlations and therefore by their short-range order. Hence, the substrate orientation and the long-range order have negligible effect on the optical properties. Fitting the experimental data of the optical gap, we obtained linear expressions that show the fundamental gap behavior with Ge concentration of some of these alloys at room temperature. For 0. © 2001 American Physical Society.

publication date

  • 2001-01-01