Reconstruction of the cleavage faces of tetrahedrally coordinated compound semiconductors

Duke, C. B.

doi:10.1007/bfb0107881

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…• independent of the semiconductor material [4][5][6]. It has been suggested that the preferred planar threefold coordination with occupied sp 2 -like and empty p z -like orbitals at the group-III atoms and the three-dimensional (incomplete) tetrahedral coordination with sp 3 -like orbitals at the group-V atoms are the driving forces of the relaxation [6][7][8][9].…”

Section: Surface Vacancies In (110) Cleavage Surfaces Of Iii-v Semicomentioning

confidence: 99%

Defects in III-V semiconductor surfaces

Ebert

2002

Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing

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Abstract. This work reports the measurement of the nanoscale physical properties of surface vacancies and the extraction of the types and concentrations of dopant atoms and point defects inside compound semiconductors, primarily by crosssectional scanning tunneling microscopy on cleavage surfaces of III-V semiconductors. The results provide the basis to determine the physical mechanisms governing the interactions, the formation, the electronic properties, and the compensation effects of surface as well as bulk point defects and dopant atoms. 71.55.Eq; 73.20.Hb; 68.37.Ef The electrical properties of semiconductors and thus their applicability in electronic devices are to a large degree governed by defects and dopant atoms incorporated during growth and production processes. Although some defects and dopant atoms may be desired to achieve the optimum device properties, other defects may be formed unintentionally and counteract the desired electronic properties. Therefore, considerable research efforts were focussed on determining the nanoscale physics governing the formation of point defects, the incorporation behavior of impurities, and their respective electronic properties. PACS:Unfortunately, a direct experimental access to point defects in semiconductors is very difficult, because most experimental techniques rely on the interpretation of macroscopic data of differently processed crystals or on signals integrated over a large set of usually unknown defects. Conclusions about point defects on the atomic level were necessarily limited. In contrast, cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) allows us to directly image with atomic resolution individual point defects and dopant atoms. Crosssectional scanning tunneling microscopy is based on a simple concept: the defects inside the crystal are exposed by cleavage on a surface and subsequently imaged with atomic resolution using STM. Such images yielded a large variety of atomically resolved data about point defects and dopant * (Fax: +49-2461/61-6444, E-mail: p.ebert@fz-juelich.de) atoms. The results provided not only significant progress in the understanding of the fundamental physics of point defects in compound semiconductor surfaces, but it has even been possible to draw conclusions about properties of defects inside semiconductor crystals and the physics governing these bulk point defects [1].The present paper illustrates using selected examples of the progress we achieved in recent years in determining the physics governing the nano-scale properties of point defects in compound semiconductors and their surfaces. We concentrate, on the one hand, on anion surface vacancies as the purest example for surface defects in cleavage surfaces of III-V semiconductors and demonstrate the determination of the surface vacancies' key properties, such as chargetransition levels, electrical charge states, lattice relaxation, and interactions. On the other hand, it is shown how to extract the physics governing bulk point defects by STM. Particular focus will be on...

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