High temperature thermal stability investigations of ammonium sulphide passivated InGaAs and interface formation with Al₂O₃ studied by synchrotron radiation based photoemission

Highlights: • Sulphur passivation is effective at removing the native oxides from InGaAs surface. • A 700°C anneal of the sulphur passivated surface at leads to the loss of indium. • A 1 nm Al2O3 layer improves the thermal stability of the sulphur passivated InGaAs. - Abstract: High resolution synchrotron radiation core level photoemission measurements have been used to undertake a comparative study of the high temperature thermal stability of the ammonium sulphide passivated InGaAs surface and the same surface following the atomic layer deposition (ALD) of an ultrathin (∼1 nm) Al₂O₃ layer. The solution based ex situ sulphur passivation was found to be effective at removing a significant amount of the native oxides and protecting the surface against re-oxidation upon air exposure. The residual interfacial oxides which form between sulphur passivated InGaAs and the ultrathin Al₂O₃ layer can be substantially removed at high temperature (up to 700°C) without impacting on the InGaAs stoichiometry while significant loss of indium was recorded at this temperature on the uncovered sulphur passivated InGaAs surface