Thermal annealing effect on nitrogen related defects of GaInNAs semiconductors

Nitrogen related defects of GaInNAs epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy were investigated before and after rapid thermal annealing using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XPS analysis revealed that the N-induced defect configurations are most likely attributed to the N-As spilt interstitials and (N-As-As-Ga) complex. Comparison of as-grown and annealed samples showed that the nearest N-bonding configuration of GaInNAs changes from Ga3In1N to Ga1In3N after annealing, which can lead to reduction of the local strain. Annealed sample demonstrated a reduced the defect concentration, which could be due to the transformation of nearest N-bonding configuration after annealing.