MBE growth of antiphase GaAs films using GaAs/Ge/GaAs heteroepitaxy

Semiconductor films with periodic crystal orientation modulation have nonlinear properties useful for optical wave-mixing devices. We have developed an all-epitaxial technique for preparing orientation-patterned GaAs templates by GaAs/Ge/GaAs epitaxy and have used these to grow laterally orientation-patterned films. We have investigated the effects of substrate misorientation, substrate temperature, and prelayer to find conditions which will allow controlled MBE growth of antiphase GaAs using thin Ge interlayers. After fabricating templates from these films using lithography and etching techniques, we have regrown GaAs films with antiphase crystal orientation modulation in the plane of the film. The template-induced antiphase boundaries were observed to propagate vertically under all conditions examined. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.