Effects of Al Content on Elastic Parameters of AlxGa1-xAs (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) Alloys

Elastic parameters of Al_xGa_1-xAs (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) alloys are numerically determined and analyzed on the basis of scanning acoustic microscopy technique. Thus, the dependence of Al concentrations, x, on all features of reflection coefficient and acoustic materials signatures (critical angles of reflected modes, spatial periods, peaks of FFT spectra and their corresponding wave velocities) has been considered, analyzed and discussed. It is found that as Al content increases several behaviors are obtained: (i) all critical angles of longitudinal, transverse and Rayleigh waves, decrease, (ii) all spatial periods increase and (ii) both Rayleigh and longitudinal wave velocities increase. Moreover, the variations of these parameters, P, were quantified and semi-empirical formulas were found to be of the form: P = c + ax + bx²; from these formulas, valuable information can be derived and may be useful for AlxGa1-xAs compositional characterization.