Bonding principles of passivation mechanism at III-V-oxide interfaces

We analyze the conditions necessary to passivate interfacial defects at III-V-oxide interfaces, in terms of an electron-counting rule. We propose that this rule, previously used to describe reconstructions at GaAs or ZnSe surfaces, acts during oxide growth or deposition, atomic layer by atomic layer. The need to satisfy this rule continuously drives the creation of interface defects, whose states can lie in the bulk band gap of the semiconductor.