Molecular beam epitaxial growth of tungsten layers embedded in single crystal gallium arsenide

Abstract
We have been able to fabricate structures which consist of a thin (∼10 nm) polycrystalline W film embedded in surrounding single crystalline GaAs by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) using an electron beam evaporation source to deposit W metal in an ultrahigh vacuum MBE growth chamber. The entire deposition sequence can take place at elevated temperature (625–700 °C) due to the nonreactive nature of W with respect to GaAs. Reflective high-energy diffraction and transmission electron microscopy indicate that the single crystal GaAs overgrowth proceeds by seeding from the GaAs layer beneath the W through spontaneously occurring perforations in the W layer.