Nitrogen doping of Te-based II-VI compounds

We report on the doping properties of the II-VI Te-related compounds, ZnTe, CdTe and CdZnTe, CdMgTe and ZnMgTe, using two different nitrogen plasma sources. High doping levels are measured for ZnTe, slightly lower for CdTe (8 x 10(17) cm(-3)). Following the comparative study of nitrogen doping in these materials, we invoke the possible formation of nitride compounds as responsible for the large nitrogen amount incorporated in Mg-containing alloys. The formation of such compounds might be reduced by using appropriate growth conditions and doping levels in the 4 x 10(17) cm(-3) range are obtained in ternary and quaternary alloys containing Mg. Such doping levels allow the growth and the study of high-quality modulation-doped heterostructures.