Growth of GaAs on Si using epitaxial techniques has been receiving considerable attention for its potential application in device fabrication. However, because of the 4% lattice misfit between GaAs and Si, defect generation at the GaAs/Si interface and its propagation to the top portion of the GaAs film occur during the growth process. The performance of a device fabricated in the GaAs-on-Si film can be degraded because of the presence of these defects. This paper describes a HREM study of the effects of both the substrate surface quality and postannealing on the defect propagation and elimination.The silicon substrates used for this work were 3-4 degrees off [100] orientation. GaAs was grown on the silicon substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).
