Identification Of Vacancy Charge States In Diffusion Of Arsenic In Germanium

Diffusion of As into Ge from a GaAs overlayer deposited on p-type Ge substrates has been studied by means of secondary ion mass spectrometry. A concentration-dependent diffusion of As atoms was observed in addition to the concentration-independent diffusion of Ga and As atoms. The concentration dependence is explained by a Fermi-level-dependent diffusion model. Arsenic atoms an shown to diffuse through Ge vacancies with the charge states 2- and 0. No presence of the singly negatively charged vacancies was observed, indicating that Ge vacancy could be a negative U center. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)00531-3].