Determination of the flow and activation energy of phosphorus desorption during annealing of an InP(001) substrate in an arsenic flux under molecular beam epitaxy conditions

We report experimental study of phosphorus desorption from epi-ready InP(001) substrates during high-temperature annealing in an arsenic flux. InPAs solid solution and InAs islands are formed on the surface in the process of annealing. The original method is proposed to determine the amount of phosphorus atoms desorbing from the surface by determining the amount of arsenic atoms in the solid solution of InPAs and InAs islands. The flux of phosphorus desorbing from the surface increases from 1$\cdot$10$^{-4}$ monolayer $\cdot$ cm$^{-2}$ $\cdot$ s$^{-1}$ at 500$^\circ$C annealing temperature to 7.3$\cdot$10$^{-4}$ monolayer $\cdot$ cm$^{-2}$ $\cdot$ s$^{-1}$at 540$^\circ$C. The activation energy of the phosphorus desorption process is 2.7 $\pm$ 0.2 eV.