DIFFUSION MECHANISM OF CHROMIUM IN GAAS

The diffusion of the substitutional Cr atoms (Cr(s)) in GaAs results from the rapid migration of the interstitial atoms (Cr(i)) and their subsequent changeover to occupy Ga sites (or vise versa), a typical substitutional-interstitial-diffusion (SID) process. There are two possible ways for the Cr(l)-Cr(s) changeover to occur: the kick-out mechanism in which Ga self-interstitials are involved, and the dissociative mechanism in which Ga vacancies are involved. The Cr(s) in-diffusion profiles are of characteristic shapes indicating the dominance of the kick-out mechanism, while the Cr(s) out-diffusion profiles are error-function shaped, indicating the dominance of the dissociative mechanism. In this study, an integrated SID mechanism, which takes into account both the kick-out and dissociative mechanisms, is used to analyze Cr diffusion results. Going beyond just qualitative consistency, the Cr in-and out-diffusion features in GaAs are explained on a quantitative basis. It is confirmed that the kick-out mechanism dominates Cr in-diffusion while the dissociative mechanism dominates Cr out-diffusion. Parameters used to fit existing experimental results provided quantitative information on the Ga self-interstitial contribution to the Ga self-diffusion coefficient. The values obtained are consistent with those obtained from a study of Zn diffusion in GaAs, and with available experimentally determined Al-Ga interdiffusion coefficients.