STUDY OF SOLID-STATE INTERDIFFUSIONS IN THE NI/ALAS CONTACT

Solid-state interdiffusions between a thin film of nickel deposited under vacuum conditions and a thick layer of epitaxial AlAs on GaAs (001) and (111) substrates were investigated in the temperature range 200-600 degrees C. Complementary analytical methods (RES, X-ray diffraction, TEM) allow us to point out, according to annealing temperatures, successives steps of the interaction. These steps correspond either to ternary phases which were evidenced by the experimental determination of the Ni-Al-As phase diagram and labelled as A, B and D phases by comparison with the isostructural ternary phases in the Ni-Ga-As diagram or to mixture of ternaries and binaries, more or less strongly textured on the substrate. In fact, the nature of the observed phases is strongly depending on the AlAs substrate orientation, the kinetic of the reaction occurring being slower on AlAs(111) than on AlAs(001). On AlAs(001), a ternary B-phase + NiAl mixture is firstly observed, followed by a second mixture constituted of the ternary A-phase + NiAl and NiAs binaries, and finally, at the end of the interaction, the two binaries NiAl + NiAs appear. On AlAs(111), only two steps of interaction have been found; first of all, the ternary D-phase is obtained, before leading, at the end of the interaction, to the ternary B-phase + NiAl + NiAs mixture. In that case, the 600 degrees C annealing is not sufficient to reach the mixture of the binaries NiAl + NiAs which, according to the ternary phase diagram, is the final stage of the Ni/AlAs interaction. The comparative study of the Ni/AlAs and Ni/GaAs interdiffusions shows that the binary NiAl is the ''key'' compound around which the Ni/AlAs interaction progresses when NiAs is the one of the Ni/GaAs interaction. The binary NiAl which is thermally stable and strongly textured on AlAs appears as an interesting candidate to prepare epitaxial NiAl/AlAs/GaAs heterostructures.