The chemical composition of thin native oxide layers grown on GaAs and InAs by ultraviolet (UV)/ozone and thermal oxidation is investigated using x-ray-photoelectron spectroscopy. Core-level binding energies, core-level intensities, and valence-band spectra are compared with data for bulk crystalline binary or ternary As, In, and Ga oxides. The chemical compositions, which vary strongly from GaAs to InAs and from thermal to UV oxidation, appear to be controlled by both thermodynamic and kinetic factors. Only for GaAs thermal oxidation are the products predicted at thermodynamic equilibrium obtained. In all cases the native oxides can be described as single phase nonstoichiometric compounds and not as a macroscopic mixture of stoichiometric binary oxides.

• Received 29 November 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.49.11159