Heteroepitaxial growth of wide bandgap cuprous iodide films exhibiting clear free-exciton emission

Abstract

Cuprous iodide (CuI) is an emerging wide-bandgap semiconductor of superior optical and transport properties. In particular, CuI shows high stability and large oscillator strength of free excitons that are of great advantage for optoelectronic applications. However, thin films of CuI reported so far have not been genuine single crystals, containing a sizable density of impurity and defect. Here, we demonstrate a dramatic improvement in the quality of CuI films grown by molecular beam epitaxy on a lattice-matched InAs substrate. The film is revealed to be in a single-crystal structure with high lattice coherence and an atomically flat surface. The low-temperature photoluminescence spectra exhibit extremely sharp emission from free excitons and much-suppressed emission from trapped states. The high-quality CuI films realized in the present study will not only facilitate the device application of CuI films but also provide unprecedented functionalities in halide semiconductors at the atomically sharp heterointerfaces.