Chemical etching‐induced defects in n‐type ZnSe crystal grown by physical vapor transport

Abstract

We have found with deep level transient spectroscopy that chemical etching induced two isolated point defects, E1(0.26–0.31) and E2(0.20), in the near-surface region of n-type ZnSe single crystals. The etching effect on the traps in Br-doped ZnSe bulk crystals was studied by using 5% Br-methanol solution, and then the E1 trap density increased with the chemical etching time, and reached to maximum value of 5.3 × 1013 cm–3. The E1 trap was obtained in the samples etched in some kinds of acid solutions, Br-methanol solution, HCl, and HBr, but did hardly in NaOH alkali etchant. These results suggest that the E1 trap is induced during the chemical etching and diffuse into the interior of the crystals. From above etching effects, we propose a tentative identification that E1 and E2 traps arise from two kinds of hydrogen related defects.