Zinc-induced lattice contraction in metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy grown AlGaInP

p-Type Zn doped (AlxGa1-x)0.5In0.5P layers have been grown on (001) GaAs substrates by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. The lattice constants have been carefully measured by X-ray double crystal diffraction. Mismatches between the substrates and epitaxial layers are observed in the direction corresponding to lattice contraction. The variation of fully-relaxed lattice constants calculated from symmetric (004) and asymmetric (115) diffraction shows that the contraction is related to both increasing inlet dopant flows and increasing growth temperatures. Secondary ion mass spectrometry is employed to analyze the elements in the epitaxial layers. The variations of Al, Ga, In and Zn components indicate that a decrease of In incorporation during the growth leads to the contracted lattice, although Zn atoms, which incorporate into the sites of In atoms during the doping, are smaller in covalent radius. The decrease is supposed to be caused by the competition between In and Zn atoms on the growth surface, which is well fit by the surface adsorption-trapping model. In addition, the suppression of Al and Ga incorporation by inlet dopant flows is observed. The possible cause might be the ethane generated by the pyrolysis of dopant source, which impedes the decomposition process of metalorganic sources of Al and Ga atoms.