Effect of growth temperature and GaAs substrate misorientation on the morphology of InAsBi nanoislands grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

The structural properties of InAsBi nanoislands grown on semi insulating GaAs by atmospheric pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy, using trimethyl indium, trimethyl bismuth, and arsine as precursor sources have been studied. The influence of growth temperature and substrate misorientation on the surface morphologies of these nanostructures have been controlled by means of atomic force microscopy. The results show InAsBi islands formation on the studied samples. The density, shape, size and the size dispersion of these islands vary greatly with growth temperature. So, below 400 °C island density increases with increasing growth temperature and accompanied by appearance of ridges. Increasing temperature over 400 °C induces a decrease in the island density and enlargement of sizes. In addition, samples grown on 10° misoriented substrates exhibit a clearly ridge on the surface.