Abstract
Direct observation of the Si delta-doped layer in GaAs has been achieved by high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Samples with different Si doses, from half a monolayer to two monolayers, were studied. The observed spreading of the delta-doped layer showed that Si atoms are largely confined in five monolayers at most (in the highest dose case), indicating excellent confinements of dopants in GaAs. From the images, the Si atoms were uniformly distributed in the doped layer, no cluster formation was observed. For delta-doped GaAs grown at low temperature (480°C), stacking faults originated from the doped layers were observed. These faults were thought to be caused by the large unrelaxed strain in the low-temperature grown GaAs.