Impurity gettering in semi-insulating gallium arsenide using ion-implantation damage

Ion-implantation damage has been used to getter impurities from semi-insulating gallium arsenide. The gettered impurities are fast diffusers which move into the damaged layer during an anneal at 750 °C. Impurity profiles of epitaxial layers grown on the gettered surfaces after removal of the damaged material were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the gettering. The out-diffusion of compensating impurities or defects from the substrate into the epitaxial layer during growth was greatly reduced by the ion-implantation damage gettering. The same gettering effect was produced when either Ne+ or Si+ was used to create the damaged layer.