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While nonstoichiometric binary III-V compounds are known to contain group-V antisites, the growth of ternary alloys consisting of two group-V elements might give additional degrees of freedom in the chemical nature of these antisites. Using cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we investigate lowtemperature-grown dilute GaAs 1−x P x alloys. High concentrations of negatively charged point defects are found. Combined with transmission electron microscopy and pump-probe transient reflectivity, this study shows that the defects have a behavior similar to the group-V antisites. Further analyses with x-ray diffraction point to the preferential incorporation of arsenic antisites, consistent with ab initio calculations, that yield a formation energy 0.83 eV lower than for phosphorus antisites. Although the negative charge carried by the arsenic antisites in the STM images is shown to be induced by the proximity of the STM tip, the arsenic antisites are not randomly distributed in the alloy, providing insight into the evolution of their charge state during the growth.

The influence of the annealing temperature to desorb a protective Te capping layer of the zinc telluride (ZnTe (100)) surface was investigated. The surface reconstruction of the ZnTe (100) upon the removal of a Te capping layer grown by the molecular beam epitaxy was characterized by different methods. Auger spectroscopy brought out the chemical composition of the surface before and after annealing; the Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) gave information about the crystallographic structure. The surface crystallographic configurations of tellurium Te (c (2x2)) and Te (c (2x1)) are confirmed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Such a study reveals a phase transition from a rich-Te to a poor-Te surface as the annealing temperature increases.

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