Thermal roughening of GaAs surface by dislocation-induced step-flow sublimation

Abstract

The thermal roughening of epitaxial GaAs film surface is studied under anneals at temperatures 700-775 °C in the presence of a saturated Ga-As melt. Surface roughening consists in the formation of spiral "inverted pyramids" on the initially flat surface due to the step-flow sublimation induced by screw dislocations. The observed roughening indicates that, despite the presence of As and Ga vapors provided by the melt, the annealing conditions are shifted from equilibrium towards sublimation.