Fabrication and characterization of heavily doped n-type GaAs for mid-infrared plasmonics

N-type doping in GaAs is a self-limited process, rarely exceeding a carrier concentration level of 1019 cm−3. Here, we investigated the effect of intense pulsed light melting on defect distribution and activation efficiency in chalcogenide-implanted GaAs by means of positron annihilation spectroscopy and electrochemical capacitance–voltage techniques. In chalcogenide-doped GaAs, donor–vacancy clusters are mainly responsible for donor deactivation. Using positrons as a probe of atomic scale open volumes and DFT calculations, we have shown that after nanosecond pulsed light melting the main defects in heavily doped GaAs are gallium vacancies decorated with chalcogenide atoms substituting As, like VGa–nTeAs or VGa–nSAs. The distribution of defects and carriers in annealed GaAs follows the depth distribution of implanted elements before annealing and depends on the change in the solidification velocity during recrystallization.