LAUSR

Surface diffusion is a critical parameter for non-equilibrium growth techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy. However, very little is known about diffusion rates of individual cations in a mixed cation material. Using droplet epitaxy as the growth technique, we isolate the diffusivity prefactor (D0) and activation energy (EA) of indium on the surface of In0.53Ga0.47As/InP(100). We report two regimes of indium diffusivity under As2-rich conditions: above and below the droplet deposition temperature of 300 °C, corresponding to a change in surface reconstruction. We also discuss methods of extracting the indium diffusion parameters on metal-rich surfaces using droplet epitaxy and nucleation theory. The obtained diffusion parameters are compared to previous work in the literature and could be employed to optimize growth conditions for non-equilibrium crystal growth.