Doubly charged state of EL2 defect in MOCVD-grown GaAs

EL2 is the ubiquitous native defect in crystalline GaAs grown by a variety of different techniques. It has been proposed to be a doubly charged deep-level center with two states having distinct energy levels in the band gap. While the singly charged state has been the subject of many experimental studies and is, therefore, well established, the doubly charged state has only been occasionally alluded to in the literature. This paper provides evidence for a dominant inadvertent deep level in p-type GaAs most likely to be the doubly charged state of the EL2 center. Deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) has been applied to characterize epitaxial layers of p-type GaAs grown on p+ GaAs substrates by low-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD). A pronounced peak is observed in the majority carrier (hole) emission deep-level spectra. Thermal emission rate of holes from the corresponding deep level is found to exhibit a strong electric field dependence, showing an increase of more than two orders of magnitude with an increase of the electric field by a factor of ∼2. The thermal activation energy for this level is found to vary from 0.29 to 0.61 eV as the electric field is varied from 2.8×105 to 1.4×105 V/cm. Direct pulse-filling measurements point to a temperature-dependent behavior of the hole capture cross section of this level. We identify this inadvertent deep-level defect, commonly observed in p-type GaAs grown by a variety of different methods, with the doubly charged state of the well-known AsGa antisite related defect, EL2.