Abstract

ABSTRACTThe heteroepitaxial growth of EuTe on PbTe (111) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) was investigated using in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED). As a function of substrate temperature and Te2 flux rate, the resulting EuTe (111) surfaces exhibit several different surface reconstructions corresponding to Te-stabilized or Eu-stabilized surfaces. The Eustabilized surface shows a (2√3 × 2√3)R30° surface reconstruction. Because of the strain induced tendency for 3D islanding, only in a narrow window of MBE growth parameters perfect 2D layer-by-layer heteroepitaxial growth exists. Using such optimized MBE growth conditions, we have fabricated a series of PbTe/EuTe superlattices. In such superlattices the wide band gap EuTe layers act as barriers and the narrow band gap PbTe as quantum wells. The superlattices were investigated by high resolution x-ray diffraction, showing their high structural perfection. Modulated low temperature Fourier transform infrared reflection measurements were performed in order to determine the confined energy levels in the PbTe quantum wells. The measurements indicate that mini-subbands are formed in the PbTe quantum wells with a mini-band width of 22 meV in agreement with envelope function calculations.

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