Characteristics of CdTe grown on Si by low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Specular CdTe epitaxial layers have been grown on (100) Si substrates by the low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition method with dimethylcadmium (DMCd) and diethyltelluride (DETe) source materials. Auger electron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy have been used to demonstrate the uniform composition, good surface morphology, and abrupt interface between the CdTe layer and the silicon substrate. The dominant sharp bound exciton related emission peak at 1.593 eV and the weak defect related extrinsic band at 1.483 eV were observed in the 14 K photoluminescence spectra, demonstrating that high quality CdTe epitaxial layers can be grown on Si at 375 °C with the DMCd/DETe mole ratio at approximate unity.