On investigations of inhomogeneities in GaP monocrystals by cathodoluminescence in the scanning electron microscope

Abstract

Examples are cited for the detection of dislocations, subgrain boundaries and inhomogeneities of dopant in GaP monocrystals by means of the cathodoluminescence (CL) mode of the scanning electron microscope (SEM). CL micrographs contain valuable information about the density of recombination centres with the restriction that the kind of a crystal imperfection in generality is not given by this method alone. The method of CL in the SEM is able to resolve e.g. dislocation densities greater than 10⁴ cm⁻². In the case of inhomogeneities of dopant CL generally represents the only possibility of sensitive detection with high lateral resolution.