High-resolution electron microscopy of growth interruption effect on AlAs/GaAs interfacial structure during molecular beam epitaxy

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Abstract
Step structures at an AlAs/GaAs interface grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and the effects of growth interruption were investigated by high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) of the interface in the [11̄0] imaging orientation. In order to accomplish this, we developed a new TEM specimen preparation technique and determined an observation condition for HRTEM of the interface. Atomic steps were clearly observed at the AlAs‐on‐GaAs interface grown by conventional MBE, and the step intervals ranged from a few nm to several tens of nm. When 120 s growth interruption was employed, the interfacial steps were smoothed out and the step intervals become larger than several tens of nm.