Prados Díaz, AliciaRanchal Sánchez, Rocío2023-06-172023-06-172019-05-100013-468610.1016/j.electacta.2019.03.019https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/13356©2019 Pergamon Elsevier Science This work has been financially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO/FEDER) [project MAT2015-66888-C3-3-R]; Santander and Universidad Complutense de Madrid [project PR26/16-3B-2]. We would like to acknowledge the postdoctoral fellowship granted by Comunidad de Madrid and the European Union [PEJD-2016/IND-2233]. We also acknowledge the use of facilities of Instituto de Sistemas Opto-electronicos y Microtecnologia (ISOM).We have investigated how the presence of an adsorbed hydrogen layer affects the nucleation and properties of Bi layers grown by dc electrodeposition at different overpotentials on n-GaAs(111)B substrates with a carrier concentration of 1.3.10^17 cm^-3 in darkness and at 300 K. The kinetics of Bi(III) ions reduction is controlled by the overpotential but also negatively affected by the adsorbed hydrogen layer, as deduced from the deconvolution of the current density transients recorded during the nucleation of the films. The surface morphology and the structural properties of the Bi films are correlated with the nucleation process and therefore, influenced by both the overpotential and the adsorbed hydrogen layer. At low overpotentials, porous and rough Bi films with a low crystal quality are obtained due to the low rate of proton and Bi(III) ion reduction. As the overpotentials raises, the rate of these reactions increase leading to flatter and more compact Bi films with a higher crystal quality. The electrical properties of the Bi/n-GaAs interface depend on the interfacial states whose origin is again the combined effect of the adsorbed hydrogen layer and growth overpotential. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.engAtribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 Españajournal articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2019.03.019https://www.sciencedirect.comopen access538.9N-gaasElectrochemical nucleationSurface-compositionHydrogen evolutionCharge-transferSteady-stateThin-filmsBismuthDepositionbehaviorElectrodepositionNucleationThermionic emissionFísica de materialesFísica del estado sólido2211 Física del Estado Sólido