Atomic Force Microscopy Analysis of Statistical Roughness of GaAs Surfaces Originated by Thermal Oxidation

We have determined the important statistical quantities of the rough boundary between a GaAs single crystal and its oxide film formed by thermal oxidation. Thermal oxidation of the GaAs surfaces was performed at the temperature of 500 °C. Using mathematical procedures developed for treating AFM data consisting of a family of the values of the heights of the irregularities of this roughness the values of the important statistical quantities of roughness were determined for 11 samples of the GaAs surfaces created by dissolution of the thermal oxide films originated during thermal oxidation of the smooth GaAs samples (the times of oxidation of these 11 samples were within interval of 20 min–8 hours). From the AFM analysis of the roughness of GaAs surfaces it was found that the roughnening of these surfaces was the most pronounced for shorter oxidation times, i.e. for times smaller than about 2 hours.