Secondary ion mass spectroscopy and carrier concentration measurements were used to characterize Si diffusion into GaAs wafers which contained 2 fundamentally different types of donor. These were column-IV donors (Si, Sn) and column-VI donors (Se, Te). A decrease in the Si diffusion rate was found in material which contained column-VI donors as compared with that which contained column-IV donors. This trend was consistent with a model in which Si diffused as donor Ga-vacancy complexes. The decrease in the Si diffusion coefficient was attributed to the greater binding energy of column-VI donor Ga-vacancy nearest-neighbor complexes. This reduced the numbers of free Ga vacancies which were available to complex with the Si.

D.G.Deppe, N.Holonyak, J.E.Baker: Applied Physics Letters, 1988, 52[2], 129-31