This thesis focuses on two aspect of GaAs surface treatment using plasma in order to deposit controlled oxide and nitride layers. In both cases, various means of analysis were used to control the chemical composition and the thickness and the structure of produced layers. Theoretical calculations of the XPS signals established on a schematic representation of the samples allow the understanding the involved phenomena. The first study reported in this thesis has demonstrated the efficiency of a microwave plasma composed of O2 and SF6 for the cleaning of GaAs substrates having undergone one or several technological processes. The variation of plasma parameters such as composition, power and exposure time enables us to better understand the mechanisms of oxidation occurring on the surface. Particularly, the presence of SF6 in the plasma induces the decrease of the concentration of arsenic on the surface and thus improves the stability of the oxide. The second study of this work presents the nitridation of GaAs substrates with different orientations. More the benefits of using a low power GDS source to create high quality GaN layer on the surface is highlighted. This optimized process leads to an As-free nitride layer formed by the inter-diffusion of arsenic and nitrogen, and shows a near saturation of the nitride layer thickness as a function of exposure time. Furthermore, this layer is crystallized by annealing in a cubic lattice parameter close to that of c-GaN.
