The effects of interactions between a thick In layer and heat-treated GaAs at 570C were investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry, Rutherford back-scattering spectrometry, X-ray diffraction and Nomarski techniques. It was shown that, as well as the usual InGaAs crystallites which grew epitaxially upon dissolution of the substrate, an array of In-rich dendrites was present whose numbers were related to the dislocation density. The driving force for In to migrate along the dislocations and eventually form InGaAs spikes was assumed to be an excess of As which had been reported to be present in the vicinity of individual dislocations. It was suggested that existing data on the coefficient for the conventional diffusion of In in GaAs had been overestimated by a factor of 106.

A.J.Barcz, J.M.Baranowski, S.Kwiatkowski: Applied Physics A, 1995, 60[3], 321-4