Comparison of thermal annealing effects on electrical activation of MBE grown and ion implant Si-doped In0.53Ga0.47As

The effect of thermal annealing on the net donor concentration and diffusion of Si in In0.53Ga0.47As is compared for electrically active layers formed by ion implantation versus molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Upon thermal treatment at temperatures of 700 degrees C or higher for 10 min, both ion implanted and growth-doped substrates converge to a common net donor solubility. These results indicate that while MBE doped substrates typically exhibit higher active concentrations relative to implanted substrates, the higher active Si concentrations from MBE growth are metastable and susceptible to deactivation upon subsequent thermal treatments after growth. Active Si doping concentrations in MBE doped material and ion-implanted materials are shown to converge toward a fixed net donor solubility limit of 1.4 x 10(19) cm(-3). Secondary ion mass spectroscopy of annealed samples indicates that the diffusivity of Si in MBE doped substrates is higher than those of ion implanted substrates presumably due to concentration-dependent diffusion effects. (C) 2015 American Vacuum Society.