Pulse annealing deficiencies in GaAs

Abstract

Heavily doped epitaxial GaAs has been subjected to pulse electron beam annealing. Differential Hall measurements indicate that the annealing causes a reduction in the majority carrier density and severely curtails the carrier mobility. The thickness of such affected material is increased with any subsequent heat treatment. These results suggest that compensating defects are produced by the pulse annealing and that these migrate inwards from the surface during thermal annealing. It is considered that such defects account for the general failure to activate low-dose implants, the loss of high-dose activation with moderate heat treatment, and the invariably poor mobilities within pulse-annealed implanted layers.