A photoemission study of Mn grown on GaAs(100)

Full text: Metal contacts on semiconductors have been an important area for device manufacture. The possibility of lattice matched growth of magnetic metals on semiconductors was once thought to be a unobtainable goal. More recently it has been found that transition metals can react with the semiconductor substrates, forming another lattice with a more comparable lattice constant, from which epitaxial growth can then proceed. Al grows epitaxially on GaN even with a lattice mismatch greater than 10%. In this instance, Al displaces Ga being driven by a larger heat of formation to produce an AlN buffer layer, on which Al can then grow. This paper investigates the room temperature deposition of Mn onto GaAs(100) at room temperature. The Photoemission study was carried out at the UEL56/2 PGM2 beam line at BESSY II in Berlin, Germany. Synchrotron radiation was used to observe the surface as thin layers of Mn were deposited. The interaction of manganese with the substrate tends to donate electron density to neighbouring atoms, decreasing binding energy. No further segregation of substitutional or interstitial Mn and Ga can be seen from angle dependence data at this temperature, with metallic manganese eventually attenuating the bulk Ga signal to the point where it is indistinguishable from the background. It is concluded that there the metal reacts with the semiconductor surface with some indiffusion as confirmed using SIMS. Previously, the reaction was only thought to have taken place above room temperature. The resulting structure consists of a Ga-As-Mn buffer layer as with the higher temperature depositions