Formation of two-dimensional arsenic precipitation in superlattice structures of alternately undoped and heavily Be doped GaAs with varying periods grown by low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy

As precipitates in superlattice structures of alternately undoped and [Be] = 2.4 × 10²⁰ cm^-3 doped GaAs with varying periods grown by molecular beam epitaxy at low substrate temperatures were studied by transmission electron microscopy. Novel arsenic precipitate microstructures were observed in annealed samples, including preferential accumulation of precipitates inside the Be-doped GaAs but near each interface of Be-doped GaAs and the following grown undoped GaAs. The confinement reaches the extreme for samples annealed at 800°C, where the precipitates appear as dot arrays along such interfaces and leave other areas almost free of precipitates. The incorporation of substitutional Be acceptors is believed to cause a smaller lattice constant in the heavily Be-doped regions than in the undoped regions. A strain-induced mechanism was proposed to account for the preferential segregation of As clusters, though the underlying mechanism is not fully clear.