Deformation of the surface of gallium arsenide during the deposition of gold

Deformation phenomena of near-surface GaAs layers are studied using surface acoustic waves during the deposition of Au and the irradiation of the semiconductor surface by the light of a heated evaporator. It is shown that, in the case of Au deposition, the near-surface layers are plasticized due to the phase transformations in the Au-Ga-As system, while upon irradiation of the GaAs surface with light, a coarse-grained layer with liquid-like interlayers is formed. As a result, the type of surface deformations and their relaxation time change. The integral temporal characteristics of the surface acoustic wave, such as the variation integrals of its rate and dissipated power, reflect the processes occurring on the surface in the real-time mode. In summary, they reflect the current magnitude of the resulting deformation. The parameters of occurring processes such as activation energy and relaxation time are determined.