Carbon diffusion in undoped, n-type, and p-type GaAs

The effects of background doping, surface encapsulation, and As4 overpressure on carbon diffusion have been studied by annealing samples with 1000 Å p-type carbon doping spikes grown within 1 μm layers of undoped (n−), Se-doped (n+), and Mg-doped (p+) GaAs. The layers were grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition using CCl4 as the carbon doping source. Two different As4 overpressure conditions were investigated: (1) the equilibrium pAs4 over GaAs (no excess As), and (2) pAs4 ∼2.5 atm. For each As4 overpressure condition, both capless and Si3N4-capped samples of the n−-, n+-, and p+-GaAs crystals were annealed simultaneously (825 °C, 24 h). Secondary-ion mass spectroscopy was used to measure the atomic carbon depth profiles. The carbon diffusion coefficient is always low, but depends on the background doping, being highest in Mg-doped (p+) GaAs and lowest in Se-doped (n+) GaAs. The influence of surface encapsulation (Si3N4) and pAs4 on carbon diffusion is minimal.