Reevaluation and recalculation of thermally stimulated current (TSC) data from semi-insulating (SI) GaAs, published by many different authors over a period of three decades were done by means of the new analytical method, simultaneous multiple peak analysis (SIMPA). The SIMPA procedure clearly resolved contributions from various overlapping TSC peaks and enabled the precise determination of signatures (activation energy, Ea and capture cross section, σ) of all observed deep traps. The analyzed TSC spectra refer to SI GaAs samples that have been grown/treated in quite different ways (various growth techniques, growth under As or Ga rich conditions, different annealing procedures, irradiation with neutrons, γ rays, etc.). Although the SIMPA procedure was applied to apparently quite different TSC spectra, in all cases excellent fits were achieved, with the unique set (or subset from it) of eleven different deep traps, the only difference being in relative and absolute concentrations of traps. Despite a broad variety of samples analyzed in this article, the set of deep traps obtained is the same as the one being previously seen in the narrow range of SI GaAs samples. This finding suggests that this set of traps is a finite and complete set of all defects with deep levels in SI GaAs. It was also concluded that these defects are primarily complexes containing simple native defects.

A refined Fourier-transform method of analysis of interference patterns is presented. The refinements include a method of automatic background subtraction and a way of treating the problem of heterodyning. The method proves particularly useful for analysis of long sequences of interferograms.

We investigate the reliability of phase retrieval by use of the fringe Fourier analysis method for measuring the displacements of facets during the growth of equilibriumlike-shaped crystals. The mean phase change between two successive interferometric images contains an inherent error that emerges from the noninteger number of fringes in the image field. The magnitude of the retrieved phase error of the ideal fringe pattern is investigated as a function of spatial carrier frequency, of the initial phase setting, and of the deviation of the number of fringes from the nearest integer value. The suggested modified algorithm suppresses the error more than threefold.

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