Influence of the step height of the vicinal surface of germanium on the formation of antiphase boundaries in a gallium-arsenide-germanium-gallium-arsenide(001) system

An investigation was made of the formation of antiphase boundaries in a GaAs/Ge/GaAs(001) system using accurately oriented substrates and substrates misoriented by 3° and 5° in the [110] direction. It was shown that growth of germanium on a misoriented gallium arsenide surface leads to the formation of diatomic steps of height a0/2 and therefore results in the absence of any antiphase boundaries in a GaAs film grown on this surface. Conditions required to obtain a vicinal Ge surface consisting of monatomic steps of height a0/4, whose presence leads to the formation of antiphase boundaries during GaAs growth, are determined.