Phase-transition-induced defect formation in III-V semiconductors

We present experimental and theoretical evidence for the creation of inversion domain boundaries (IDB's) at structural phase transitions in III-V semiconductors. A novel use of anomalous high-pressure powder x-ray diffraction with an image plate area detector allows for the study of weak difference scattering, the absence of which is attributed to IDB's. As a test of this, ab initio total energy pseudopotential calculations, including both ionic relaxation and boundary layer expansion, have been performed on a particular type of possible defect---a (110) IDB in InSb.