Growth and characterization of hot-wall epitaxial CdTe on (111) HgCdTe and CdZnTe substrates

Abstract

Thin CdTe films were deposited by hot-wall epitaxy (HWE) on (111) HgCdTe and CdZnTe substrates at temperatures from about 140 to 335°C. X-ray rocking curves were used to show that crystal quality of the CdTe (111)B films improved as substrate temperature increased from 140 to about 250°C. Rocking curve values for full width at half maximum (FWHM) decreased from 2–4 degrees at 140–150°C to less than 100 arc-s at 250°C, and a FWHM of 59 arc-s was the lowest value observed near 250°C. The FWHM of the HWE CdTe was found to be insensitive to growth rate below about 400A/min, but increased to four degrees at 1250A/min. X-ray diffraction confirmed that films grown on the B-face at higher temperatures were epitaxial, but contained a significant volume fraction, 35% to 50%, of rotational in-plane twins. Electron microscopy confirmed a coarse twin density, and photoluminescence spectra showed an absence of excitonic emission in the HWE films. Simultaneous growth on two (111) HgCdTe substrates with different surface polarities between 230°C and 335°C showed that deposition rate on the A-face decreased relative to that on the B-face as temperature increased. Films grown on the B-face exhibited better surface morphologies than those grown on the A-face.