Energy barrier for the growth transition step-flowrstep-bunching during epitaxy of InPrInP

We report the growth mode evolution of homoepitaxially grown InP by metal organic vapour phase epitaxy examined by ex-situ atomic force microscope AFM.. We varied the growth temperature between 5008C and 6308C and used substrates with different miscut angle from 0.158 to 28 off towards 111.A. After annealing under phosphine above 5008C, the wafer surface recovers its terrace structure with nominal width terraces. At growth temperatures of 580–6008C, the step flow is dominantly observed. At higher temperatures of 6308C, the step flow growth evolves towards step bunching when increasing the miscut angle from 0.28 to 28 off and the terrace width saturates at f40 nm. The effect of the growth temperature is analysed taking account for the different surface energy barrier for the transition step flowrstep bunching. A clear evidence of the dependence of the activation energy with miscut angle will be shown. The Schwoebel’s barrier evolution is shown from the growth onto differently misoriented substrates. q2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.