Comparative study of interface structure in GaAs/AlAs superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (001) GaAs substrates misoriented towards (111)Ga or (111)As plane

The interface morphology of GaAs/AlAs superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (001) misoriented GaAs substrates has been investigated using high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy observations. We show that the misorientation towards (111)Ga or (111)As plane leads to the same interfacial structure: monolayer height steps and terrace width variations are observed. But the results reveal that the misorientation towards the (111)Ga plane is the most favorable to a regular growth of superlattice structures, because the higher degree of correlation between the interfaces resulting from a smoothing of step edges.