Articles you may be interested inLinear thermal expansion coefficient determination using in situ curvature and temperature dependent X-ray diffraction measurements applied to metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy-grown AlGaAs J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033501 (2013); 10.1063/1.4812369In situ control of As dimer orientation on Ge (100) Energy storage is a key challenge in solar-driven renewable energy conversion. We promote a photochemical diode based on dilute nitride GaPN grown lattice-matched on Si(100), which could reach both high photovoltaic efficiencies and evolve hydrogen directly without external bias. Homoepitaxial GaP(100) surface preparation was shown to have a significant impact on the semiconductor-water interface formation. Here, we grow a thin, pseudomorphic GaP nucleation buffer on almost single-domain Si(100) prior to GaPN growth and compare the GaP 0.98 N 0.02 /Si(100) surface preparation to established P-and Ga-rich surfaces of GaP/Si(100). We apply reflection anisotropy spectroscopy to study the surface preparation of GaP 0.98 N 0.02 in situ in vapor phase epitaxy ambient and benchmark the signals to low energy electron diffraction, photoelectron spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction. While the preparation of the Ga-rich surface is hardly influenced by the presence of the nitrogen precursor 1,1-dimethylhydrazine (UDMH), we find that stabilization with UDMH after growth hinders well-defined formation of the V-rich GaP 0.98 N 0.02 /Si(100) surface. Additional features in the reflection anisotropy spectra are suggested to be related to nitrogen incorporation in the GaP bulk. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.