GROWTH AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PB1-XCAXS THIN-FILMS PREPARED BY HOT-WALL EPITAXY METHOD

Lead chalcogenide solid solution semiconductors are expected to be applied to tunable laser diodes, which operate in the mid-infrared wavelength region between 3 and 4 x 10(-6) m ranges. The laser diode is considered to be mainly utilized to an advanced measurement system for detecting hydrocarbon pollutants in air and also to a new optical fiber communication system over super long distances, which has not been developed yet. In order to put this laser diode to practical use, it is required to operate at room temperature. In this study, we proposed a new quaternary solid solution semiconductor Pb1-xCaxS1-ySey for the cladding layer in a double-hetero or quantumn well structure laser. In our preceding study, it was revealed that the Pb1-xCaxS1-y semiconductor was one of the excellent materials for mid-infrared laser diodes compared with the conventional ones. Based on the result, we tryed to fabricate Pb1-xCaxS1-ySey (y = 0) thin films by the hot wall epitaxy method and examined their semiconducting properties. It is expected that this laser diode with double-hetero structure has a higher operating temperature than that of the ones reported previously.