This article was presented as part of Symposium G, "Gallium Nitride and Related Alloys" at the 1998 Fall Meeting of the Materials Research Society held in Boston, Massachusetts, November 30-December 4.

Abstract

Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) was used to investigate the processes taking place during the initial stages of nitridation of GaAs (001) surface. The analysis of the AES results combined with that of RHEED show that the processes taking place during nitridation greatly differ depending on the nitridation temperature. At low temperatures (< 200°C) nitridation is hindered by kinetic restrictions on atomic migration, whereas at high temperatures (> 500°C) the process of nitridation takes place simultaneously with the etching of the surface. However, for intermediate temperatures (300°C ~ 400°C) the results indicate that a complete monolayer of N atoms may be formed on the substrate during the initial stage of nitridation. The post-nitridation annealing of the samples nitrided at the intermediate temperatures results in the formation of a crystalline GaN layer, the line shape of the AES signals from which is identical to that for a GaN reference sample.

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Cite this article as: MRS Internet J. Nitride Semicond. Res. 4S1, G3.4 (1999).

last updated Saturday, April 3, 1999 2:38:03 AM.
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