Reflection high-energy electron diffraction measurement of lattice-parameter oscillations during the homoepitaxial growth of CdTe

An oscillatory behavior of the in-plane lattice parameter of the surface during the two-dimensional homoepitaxial growth of CdTe(001) has been demonstrated from reflection high-energy electron diffraction measurements. It is attributed to a deformation, induced by the surface reconstructions, of the free edges of the small islands formed during the growth by molecular-beam epitaxy or atomic layer epitaxy. An anisotropic relaxation of the lattice parameter is observed when the growing surface is Cd-stabilized. On the contrary, an isotropic relaxation is obtained when the growth takes place under Te-stabilized conditions. Increasing the temperature leads to a decrease of the relaxation process, as expected from the higher mobility of the atoms and thus the larger size of the islands.