Annealing behavior of N-bonding configurations in GaN0.023As0.977 ternary alloy grown on GaAs (0 0 1) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy

We have investigated by high-resolution X-ray diffraction, secondary-ion-mass-spectroscopy (SIMS) and Raman scattering the effects of rapid thermal annealing on the structural properties of GaNxAs1−x ternary alloys coherently grown on GaAs (0 0 1) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. X-ray diffraction indicates that the in-plane strain does not relax and the vertical lattice in the GaNAs film tends to shrink, while SIMS reveals the absence of any N concentration change upon annealing. Furthermore, post-growth annealing causes an increase of substitutional N as revealed by the increase of the ratio of Raman scattering intensity between the nitrogen-localized vibration mode and the GaAs-like LO. After performing strain analysis, we conclude with the changes of N configurations in the GaNxAs1−x from the N–N split interstitial to the N–As split interstitial and the NAs substitutional at elevated temperatures, the thermal behaviors of N–N, N–As and NAs are reported over 700–850 °C.