Grazing-incidence x-ray scattering from stepped interfaces in AlAs/GaAs superlattices

The features of surface and interface roughness in crystalline AlAs/GaAs superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy on vicinal (001) GaAs substrates are studied by grazing-incidence x-ray scattering (GIXS). The effects of different growth modes [step-flow or two-dimensional- (2D-) nucleation], different substrate preparations, and growth interruptions on the roughness are investigated. The results of GIXS are compared with atomic force microscopy (AFM) images of sample surfaces. For samples grown in the step-flow mode, both of the methods display a distinct anisotropy in the lateral size of roughness along the substrate miscut direction and perpendicular to it. The lateral correlation lengths given by GIXS correspond to the size of step bunches observed by AFM, while individual steps are resolved by AFM only. GIXS reveals also a strong interface-interface correlation or inheritance of roughness for all the samples which is not accessible by AFM. Moreover, the angle of inclination of the direction of this inheritance from the surface normal is found to be dependent on the growth conditions. Two effects in the skew inheritance have been observed by means of 2D mapping of GIXS in the reciprocal space: (i) in the direction of substrate miscut the angle of skew inheritance inverted its sign, (ii) in the direction perpendicular to the miscut a strongly skew inheritance appeared as an effect of growth interruptions. Conclusions concerning the improvement of GIXS experiments applied to the studies of multilayers are derived.