Divacancy complexes induced by Cu diffusion in Zn-doped GaAs

Positron annihilation spectroscopy was applied to investigate the nature and thermal behavior of defects induced by Cu diffusion in Zn-doped p-type GaAs crystals. Cu atoms were intentionally introduced in the GaAs lattice through thermally activated diffusion from a thin Cu capping layer at 1100 °C under defined arsenic vapor pressure. During isochronal annealing of the obtained Cu-diffused GaAs in the temperature range of 450−850 K, vacancy clusters were found to form, grow and finally disappear. We found that annealing at 650 K triggers the formation of divacancies, whereas further increasing in the annealing temperature up to 750 K leads to the formation of divacancy-copper complexes. The observations suggest that the formation of these vacancy-like defects in GaAs is related to the out-diffusion of Cu. Two kinds of acceptors are detected with a concentration of about 10<Superscript>16</Superscript> − 10<Superscript>17</Superscript> cm<Superscript>−3</Superscript>, negative ions and arsenic vacancy copper complexes. Transmission electron microscopy showed the presence of voids and Cu precipitates which are not observed by positron measurements. The positron binding energy to shallow traps is estimated using the positron trapping model. Coincidence Doppler broadening spectroscopy showed the presence of Cu in the immediate vicinity of the detected vacancies. Theoretical calculations suggested that the detected defect is V <Subscript>Ga</Subscript> V <Subscript>As</Subscript>-2Cu<Subscript>Ga</Subscript>. Copyright EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013