Cubic phase gallium nitride epitaxially formed on GaAs or GaInAs at low temperature with a NH3 DECR plasma

GaN is a compound semiconductor attractive for its blue band gap (3.45 eV) and its large saturated electron drift velocity. Unfortunately, because of its large ionicity, GaN condense in the Wurtzite structure. It has been shown, that it was possible to obtain an epitaxial zinc blende structure using an appropriate growth technics. In this paper it is shown that a simple interaction of a NH/sub 3/ DECR Plasma with a GaAs or InGaAs surface can result in a surface transformation in which an important amount of nitrogen is incorporated at the place of the As, leading to the formation of epitaxial cubic nitrides. The temperature of the treatment is as low as 450/spl deg/C for GaAs and 220/spl deg/C for GaInAs. X-ray diffraction, AFM and high resolution TEM are utilized to analyse the growth process.