Impurity gettering in semi-insulating gallium arsenide using ion-implantation damage

Abstract

Ion‐implantation damage has been used to getter impurities from semi‐insulating gallium arsenide. The gettered impurities are fast diffusers which move into the damaged layer during an anneal at 750 °C. Impurity profiles of epitaxial layers grown on the gettered surfaces after removal of the damaged material were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the gettering. The out‐diffusion of compensating impurities or defects from the substrate into the epitaxial layer during growth was greatly reduced by the ion‐implantation damage gettering. The same gettering effect was produced when either Ne⁺ or Si⁺ was used to create the damaged layer.