Epitaxial growth of ErAs on (100)GaAs

Abstract

Successful growth of (100)ErAs single-crystal films on (100)GaAs has been demonstrated. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction, low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), and Rutherford backscattering with channeling indicate single-crystal growth. LEED from the ErAs shows a (1×1) structure. Overgrowth of GaAs on ErAs is found to be difficult due to the GaAs not wetting the ErAs surface and hence resulting in island growth. For a 150-Å-thick film metallic behavior is observed with resistivities 17 and 70 μΩ cm at 1.5 K and room temperature, respectively. Low-temperature Hall measurements show the conduction to be dominated by electrons with an effective n-type mobility in the range 360 cm2/V s at 1.35 K.