CdTe/MgTe heterostructures: Growth by atomic layer epitaxy and determination of MgTe parameters

Atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) is investigated for the binary semiconductor MgTe. Reflection high-energy electron-diffraction studies on MgTe atomic deposition, together with x-ray diffraction, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence experiments on ALE-grown CdTe/MgTe superlattices are reported. They reveal that an autoregulated growth at 0.7+/-0.1 MgTe monolayer/ALE cycle can be achieved in a substrate temperature range between 260 and 300 degrees C. New values of the zinc-blende MgTe lattice parameter, a(MgTe)=6.420+/-0.005 Angstrom, of the ratio of the elastic coefficients 2c12/c11(MgTe) = 1.06, and of the 300 K MgTe band gap, E(G)=3.5 eV, are obtained by correlating x-ray-diffraction and optical results. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.