Metal organic vapor phase epitaxy of BiSbTe3 films on (001) GaAs vicinal substrates

Abstract

We have investigated the growth of BiSbTe3 films by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy on (001) GaAs vicinal substrates. A detailed experimental study of the surface morphologies of BiSbTe3 films grown on GaAs (001) vicinal surfaces was carried out and is discussed in this paper with a view to understanding the step-step interaction kinetics that result in step bunching. BiSbTe3 layers grown on nominal (001) GaAs substrates exhibit triangular facet structures consisting of atomically flat plateau areas separated by steps. In contrast, the growth of films on vicinal substrates was found to result in regular arrays of terrace step structures. The formation of step bunches and rectangular terraces on such film surface is attributed to the preferential incorporation of adatoms at step or kink sites and lateral growth rate anisotropy. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.