Investigation by Raman scattering of the properties of III-V compound semiconductors at high temperature

The properties of several III-V compound semiconductor alloys, namely, GaAs, AlGaAs, and GaInP, have been studied at high temperatures using Raman spectroscopy. The temperature range used for these measurements includes the thermal dissociation temperatures for GaAs and GaInP in vacuum. The Raman spectra taken from the thermally dissociated surface yield information on the crystallinity (or lack of it) after decomposition in vacuum occurs. These data establish the feasibility to acquire Raman spectra of these materials and deduce their alloy composition and layer thickness during epitaxial growth. We have determined the phonon frequency shifts with temperature, and found that the linewidth broadening of the Raman peaks at high temperatures (700 °C) is minimal.