Interaction of Mn with GaAs and InSb: incorporation, surface reconstruction and nano-cluster formation

The deposition of Mn on to reconstructed InSb and GaAs surfaces, without coincident As or Sb flux, has been studied by reflection high energy electron diffraction, atomic force microscopy and scanning tunnelling microscopy. On both Ga- and As-terminated GaAs(0 0 1), (2 × n) Mn-induced reconstruction domains arise with n = 2 for the most well ordered reconstructions. On the Ga-terminated (4 × 6), the Mn-induced (2 × 2) persists up to around 0.5 ML Mn followed by Mn nano-cluster formation. For deposition on initially β2(2 × 4)-reconstructed GaAs(0 0 1), the characteristic trench structure of the reconstruction is partially preserved even beyond 1 monolayer Mn coverage. On both the β2(2 × 4) and c(4 × 4) surfaces, MnAs-like nano-clusters form alongside the reconstruction changes. In contrast, there are no new Mn-induced surface reconstructions on InSb. Instead, the Sb-terminated surfaces of InSb (0 0 1), (1 1 1)A and (1 1 1)B revert to reconstructions characteristic of clean In-rich surfaces after well defined coverages of Mn proportional to the Sb content of the starting reconstruction. These surfaces are decorated with self-assembled MnSb nanoclusters. These results are discussed in terms of basic thermodynamic quantities and the generalized electron counting rule. (paper)