ON THE MECHANISM OF REFLECTION HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRON-DIFFRACTION OSCILLATIONS STUDIED BY PHASE-LOCKED EPITAXY OF ZNSE

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is one of the most promising methods for growth of sophisticated device structures. Starting the growth on a flat surface, reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) oscillations occur. The question which phase of the oscillations corresponds to lattice plane completion and the most flat surface morphology is not yet fully resolved. There is hardly a direct access to the answer. Phase-locked epitaxy (PLE), however, appears to be a tool for studying this phase problem. PLE permits the growth of layers without losing RHEED oscillations due to damping the thickness of which is great enough to become measurable by common techniques. This enables to compare the directly determined layer thickness with that obtained by counting the number of RHEED oscillation periods. Results are presented that show the phase relation between RHEED oscillations and lattice plane completion.