Monte Carlo simulation of GaAs(001) surface smoothing in equilibrium conditions

•Kinetics of GaAs(001) surface smoothing in equilibrium conditions is simulated.•The stages of step-terraced morphology formation are elucidated.•Monatomic step length and mean island size kinetics are compared with experiment.•The role of atom migration through the gas phase to smoothing is conside...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied surface science 2015-04, Vol.333, p.141-146
Main Authors: Kazantsev, D.M., Akhundov, I.O., Karpov, A.N., Shwartz, N.L., Alperovich, V.L., Terekhov, A.S., Latyshev, A.V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bond energy
Computer simulation
Equilibrium conditions
GaAs
Gallium arsenide
Gallium arsenides
Mathematical models
Monatomic steps
Monte Carlo methods
Monte Carlo simulation
Smoothing
Step-terraced morphology
Surface smoothing
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Summary:•Kinetics of GaAs(001) surface smoothing in equilibrium conditions is simulated.•The stages of step-terraced morphology formation are elucidated.•Monatomic step length and mean island size kinetics are compared with experiment.•The role of atom migration through the gas phase to smoothing is considered.•Diffusion activation, lateral bond and adatom desorption energies are estimated. Monte Carlo simulation of smoothing and step-terraced morphology formation on the Kossel crystal surface is carried out. The simulation results are compared with the experimental data on GaAs surface smoothing in equilibrium conditions. Despite the simplicity of the Kossel crystal model, the simulation qualitatively describes the experiment. The full length of monatomic steps and the mean size of islands on terraces are explored for quantitative characterization of the surface relief evolution. The comparison of the simulation and experiment yields surface diffusion activation energy Ed=1.3±0.05eV, lateral bond energy Eb=0.32±0.02eV and adatom desorption energy Edes=2.1±0.05eV, which are in reasonable agreement with the values obtained earlier from GaAs growth experiments and ab initio calculations.
ISSN:0169-4332
1873-5584
DOI:10.1016/j.apsusc.2015.01.226