Influence of growth conditions on the lattice constant and composition of (Ga,Mn)As

The lattice constant and the alloy composition of (Ga,Mn)As are investigated by high-resolution x-ray diffraction and secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The (Ga,Mn)As layers are grown by low-temperature molecular-beam epitaxy under various growth conditions. We find that, while the alloy composition is mainly determined by the Mn cell temperature (T-Mn), the substrate temperature (T-sub) and the arsenic to gallium flux ratio (As/Ga) strongly influence the lattice constant. In particular, layers which have the same composition but different growth parameters have quite different lattice constants, caused by the amount of excess As incorporation in the (Ga,Mn)As crystal. This implies that the lattice parameter of (Ga,Mn)As cannot even serve as a rough measure of the crystal composition. (Ga,Mn)As is therefore an example of a system which does not obey Vegard's law. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.