Impurity and Defect Behavior in High-Purity Epitaxial GaAs

Although a number of mechanisms have been proposed to explain the existence of impurity gradients in epitaxial GaAs, the impurity gradient model presented in this report shows that such effects are inherent to the growth process. That is, when the carrier concentrations in the substrate, growing layer, and at the growth surface are different at the growth temperature, non-uniform time-dependent electric fields are obtained in the layer. These fields can enhance or retard the motion of ionized impurities and defects during growth producing impurity gradients at the outer surface and different conductivity regions at the epitaxy-substrate interface. High temperature resistivity and Hall coefficient measurements were made on epitaxial layers and substrates and analyzed using a self-consistent four-band model to obtain quantitative results for the impurity gradient model for growth on heavily-doped n-type substrates predicts that thin (0.05 micrometers or larger) p-type regions at the epitaxy-substrate interface will be produced under conditions commonly encountered in the epitaxial growth of GaAs.