MBE growth of the (Zn,Cd)(Se,Te) system for wide-bandgap heterostructure lasers

The authors address the principal materials for the design of a ZnSe-based visible injection laser: the controlled p-type doping of ZnSe and the development of heterostructures for optical and carrier confinement. Diode I-V characteristics of ZnSe p-n homojunctions are presented to demonstrate the existence of p-type ZnSe layers doped with lithium. These diodes exhibit electroluminescence in the visible range. Growth of the II-VI quaternary Zn1-yCdySe1-xTex is reported for the first time. Along with tuning of the bandgap energy with composition, these quaternary alloys are expected to provide tuning of the band offsets with ZnSe, thus having great potential for the design of practical visible heterostructure lasers.