Protection of an interrupted molecularhyphen;beam epitaxially grown surface by a thin epitaxial layer of InAs

摘要

When the molecularhyphen;beam epitaxial (MBE) growth of GaAs or (Al,Ga)As is interrupted and the surface is exposed to air for other kinds of processing, a high concentration (2times;1011cmminus;2) of surface defects tends to form which will show up as highly detrimental interface defects if the MBE growth is subsequently resumed. We show that the surface can be protected by a thin epitaxial layer of InAs, which is highly resistant to many kinds of processing steps, and which can be thermally removed before resumption of growth, leading to an lsquo;lsquo;invisiblersquo;rsquo; restart interface.