Congruent evaporation temperature of GaAs(001) controlled by As flux

The congruent evaporation temperature Tc is a fundamental surface characteristic of GaAs and similar compounds. Above Tc the rate of As evaporation exceeds that of Ga during Langmuir (free) evaporation into a vacuum. However, during molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) there is generally an external As flux F incident on the surface. Here we show that this flux directly controls Tc. We introduce a sensitive approach to measure Tc based on Ga droplet stability, and determine the dependence of Tc on F. This dependence is explained by a simple model for evaporation in the presence of external flux. The capability of manipulating Tc via changing F offers a means of controlling congruent evaporation with relevance to MBE, surface preparation methods, and droplet epitaxy. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.