Growth mechanism and strain relaxation in zinc selenide and cadmium telluride/zinc telluride semiconductor thin films

The application of II--VI semiconductor devices such as blue-green light emitters (ZnSe-based materials) and HgCdTe infrared detectors are limited by the high density of defects and lack of large size substrates that are lattice matched and chemically compatible with the films. By growing a single thick buffer layer or a composite buffer structure of dissimilar materials can lead to a final top layer that is structurally and chemically compatible with the active layer of the device. Low defect density and flat surface morphology are the basic requirements for an applicable buffer layer. In this work, transmission electron microscopy is used to investigate the crystalline structure and defect generation mechanism in buffer layers for the growth of ZnSe-based and HgCdTe films. We investigate the interface chemistry, defect density, and growth mechanism of ZnSe films grown on GaAs substrates with different surface processing techniques. Undesirable high density of funnel defects (∼1010 cm-2) are always observed when the growth is performed on the epi-ready GaAs. We also observe that Sb can act as a surfactant and promote a truly layer-by-layer growth mode when the ZnSe film is grown on Sb-stabilized GaAs substrates. The defect density can be reduced to values as low as in the low 103 cm-2 range, which is the lowest defect density ever reported for ZnSe films. Moreover, the ZnSe surface exhibits a characteristic brick-like pattern for all of the substrate preparation methods used (except for Sb-stabilized GaAs) and the thickness of the ZnSe epilayers for films grown at ∼280--330°C. At a much higher growth temperature (410°C), a corrugated surface forms with high periodicity along the [110] direction. We propose a kinetics-limited surface roughness mechanism for the ZnSe films based on a competition of nucleation of 2D islands followed by step evolution.;In the CdTe/ZnTe/Si epitaxial system, we investigated the influence of different surface precursors on the growth mechanism and defect density in the films. For As---precursor on the Si surface, Te adsorption on the terraces is inhibited and its migration to the step edges is enhanced. Therefore, the growth is expected to proceed in a step-flow growth mode. A strain relaxation mechanism including misfit dislocation generation, twin formation, and crystal tilt is proposed to account for the large lattice mismatch (f = 12.3%) in this system.