Strain-driven transition from stepped interfaces to regularly spaced macrosteps in (GaIn)As/Ga(PAs) symmetrically strained superlattices

We investigate the morphological transition from a steplike interface modulation to a highly periodic lateral thickness modulation that occurs on symmetrically strained (GaIn)As/GaAs/Ga(PAs)/GaAs superlattices grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy on miscut (001)GaAs substrate. The combination of x-ray reciprocal-space mapping, around the (004) as well as the (200) and (020) reciprocal-lattice points, and transmission electron microscopy allowed us to monitor and analyze accurately the structural periodicities and ordering of heterointerfaces and to relate them to the elastic strain field. The laterally ordered macrosteps on the growth surface are investigated and discussed as a function of the strain misfit between epitaxial layer and substrate. Within this purpose, the complementary information obtained by grazing-incidence x-ray diffraction, by looking at different reciprocal-lattice points, is discussed in relationship to the effects of strain and morphological modulation of the interfaces in the process of macrostep formation.