Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2011
We have developed a new electrochemical passivation method to obtain a quite stable sulfide layer on GaAs surface. This layer is very thick and contains a mixture of Ga, As, S, O and H compounds. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of such anodic sulfurized GaAs surface shows big intensity enhancement as compared with that of as-etched GaAs samples; No visual intensity decay occurs under laser beam illumination, which maintains for more than seven months. The structure and composition of the passivation layers are investigated by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the mechanism of the layer formation is suggested.