Annealing-induced precipitate formation behavior in MOVPE-grown GaAs Bi explored by atom probe tomography and HAADF-STEM.

The effects of a 45 min anneal at 800 °C on the physical properties and microstructure of a five-period GaAs Bi /GaAs Bi superlattice with y ≠ x were studied using room-temperature photoluminesence spectroscopy, high-resolution x-ray diffraction, high-angle annular-dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM), and atom probe tomography (APT). The anneal resulted in a substantial increase of the photoluminesence intensity over that observed in the as-deposited sample, indicating annihilation of non-radiative recombination centers and stability of the superlattice structure during the anneal. However, some precipitation of Bi from the GaAs Bi also occurred.