Diffusion of Ga adatoms at the surface of GaAs(001) c(4x4) $\alpha$ and $\beta$ reconstructions

Abstract

Diffusion of Ga adatom at the As rich, low temperature c(4$\times$4) reconstructions of GaAs(001) surface is analyzed. We use known energy landscape for the motion of Ga adatom at two different $\alpha$ and $\beta$ surface phases to calculate diffusion tensor by means of the variational approach. Diffusion coefficient describes the character of low density adatom system motion at the surface. The resulting expressions allow to identify main paths of an adatom diffusion and to calculate an activation energy of this process. It is shown that diffusion at the $\alpha$ surface is slower and more anisotropic than this for the $\beta$ surface.