In our previous work on MBE grown low temperature (LT) InP, attempts had been made to understand the relationships between the structural and electrical properties of this material system. Electrical measurements had established an enhancement of the resistivity of the phosphorus-rich LT InP layers with annealing under a P2 flux, which was directly correlated with the presence of second-phase particles. Further investigations, however, have revealed the presence of two fundamentally different types of precipitates. The first type are the surface particles, essentially an artefact of argon ion milling and containing mostly pure indium. The second type and the one more important to the study are the dense precipitates in the bulk of the annealed layers. These are phosphorus-rich and are believed to contribute to the improvement in the resistivity of the material.The observation of metallic indium islands solely in the annealed LT layers warranted further study in order to better understand the exact reasons for their formation.
