An investigation was made of the change in the reflection high-energy electron diffraction pattern during molecular beam epitaxy of GaAs with an alternating use of gallium and arsenic beams. The surface reconstruction observed during Ga deposition, a (4 x 8) structure, was found to be affected by the substrate temperature and the surface misorientation from the (100) plane. It was shown that this reconstruction could preferentially be promoted by regularly arrayed steps having a periodicity comparable to the size of the reconstruction unit cell.

Step-Promoted Surface Reconstruction on Ga-Deposited (100) GaAs during Molecular Beam Epitaxy with Alternating Supply of Ga and As. K.Kanamoto, Y.Tokuda, N.Tsukada: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 1991, 30, 3491-5