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Observation of gallium droplets directly formed on GaAs substrate by in-situ laser irradiation

  • Zequ Zhu
    ,
  • Biao Geng
    ,
  • Gaojun Zhang
    ,
  • Zhaoxiang Han
    ,
  • Lingsu Cheng
    ,
  • Maoyun Ren
  • Soochow University
Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Conference contribution Peer-review

Abstract

In this study, following the deposition of a 500nm GaAs buffer layer, the GaAs substrate was irradiated in MBE with an in situ laser shooting at a very low temperature of around 12°C. We carefully observed the morphology evolution of the irradiated surface with different pulse energy varying from 20mJ to 50mJ. After being pulsed-irradiated with 20mJ, a density of Ga droplets as high as 7.2×1010/cm2 was directly formed on the surface. The droplets have a height range of 1.0nm to 4.1nm (averaging at 2.4nm) and a width range of 15.7nm to 39.2nm (averaging at 28.1nm). With increasing irradiation energy, it is observed the droplet density will gradually decrease from 2.2 × 1010/cm2, 1.2 × 1010/cm2 to 5.2 × 109/cm2 while the size (average width/height) will continue to grow up from 64.1nm/8.2nm, 63.3/9.2nm to 76.1nm/12.2nm, respectively corresponding to exposure energy from 30mJ, 40mJ to 50mJ. The results demonstrate the successful provision of a new technology to generate Ga droplets on the surface of GaAs directly through in-situ pulsed laser irradiation without the need of epitaxial growth. Furthermore, both the resulting density and size can be easily and effectively adjusted by varying the laser energy. Additionally, this technique offers significant advantages such as low cost, free of contamination and defects and high controllability. Therefore, we believe this technology may find great application prospects for nano-fabrication of semiconductor quantum structures and devices.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Conference contribution Peer-review

Original language

English

Article number

131044B

Publication milestones

  • Published - 18/03/2024

Publication status

Published - 18/03/2024

Volume

13104

Publisher

SPIE, United States

Publication series

  • Publication series name: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
    ISSN (Print): 0277-786X
    ISSN (Electronic): 1996-756X
    Volume: 13104

ISBN (Print)

9781510677661

ISBN (Electronic)

9781510677661

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/626865
  • Scopus: 85192014512

Host publication title

Advanced Fiber Laser Conference, AFL 2023

Host publication editors

  • Pu Zhou

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