Magnetron sputtering growth of InAs0.3Sb0.7 films on (1Â 0Â 0) GaAs substrates: Strong effect of growth conditions on film structure

The growth of highly lattice-mismatched InAs0.3Sb0.7 films on (1 0 0) GaAs substrates by magnetron sputtering has been investigated and even epitaxial InAs0.3Sb0.7 films have been successfully obtained. A strong effect of the growth conditions on the film structure was observed, revealing that there was a growth mechanism transition from three-dimensional nucleation growth to epitaxial layer-by-layer growth mode when increasing the substrate temperature. A qualitative explanation for that transition was proposed and the critical conditions for the epitaxial layer-by-layer growth mode were also discussed.