Photoreflectance analysis of annealed vanadium-doped GaAs thin films grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

In this study, we investigate the optical properties of annealed vanadium-doped GaAs films grown on GaAs substrates by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. The temperature dependence of the photoreflectance (PR) of as-grown GaAs:V films has been studied. We used the fit with Third-Derivative Functional Form model to evaluate the physical parameters. The temperature dependence of band gap and spin-orbit energies can be described by the Bose-Einstein statistical expression. The PR spectra of the samples are measured after thermal annealing in order to check any improvement in the optical quality of the material. The PR signal amplitude of GaAs:V samples decreased after thermal annealing. Degradation of the PR signal for annealing temperature at about 850 °C is observed revealing a poor quality of the layer surface states and an important density of the recombination centers. The lock-in phase analysis of PR spectra allows to determine the time constant for GaAs:V sample before and after thermal annealing.