Mechanisms of molecular beam epitaxial growth of (001) HgTe

We report on an investigation of the growth mechanisms of HgTe using a combination of reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The experiments were carried out on untilted (001) CdTe substrates. Growth rates were determined from RHEED intensity oscillations of the (00) specular spot reflection. The amplitude of these oscillations decrease with increasing substrate temperature. Above 178 degrees C no RHEED oscillations could be measured. Upon reducing the sample temperature below 178 degrees C these oscillations could again be observed. This cyclic behavior could be induced several times for each sample, indicating a reversible change in the growth mechanism. In order to correlate the surface structure with RHEED observations, several samples have been investigated with STM. Thus, it could be confirmed that a temperature dependent transition occurs during the MBE growth of HgTe from the island growth mode below the critical temperature of 178 degrees C to a step how mode above this temperature. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.