Initial growth of gallium arsenide on silicon by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy

Thin films (less than 1000 nm) of heteroepitaxial GaAs on Si were grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy with the intent of comparing the initial stages of growth with the authors’ previous experience in examining films grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The films were found to be epitaxial after 10 nm of growth at 425 °C, and to uniformly cover the substrate completely, unlike the asymmetrical island nature of MBE films grown under comparable conditions. The relaxation of strain was found to be quite similar to the MBE case.