Molecular beam epitaxial growth of CdTe and HgCdTe on Si (100)

CdTe has been grown on Si(100) by molecular beam epitaxy. Two orientations can be obtained: (111)B CdTe when the CdTe is deposited directly on the Si(100) substrates, and (100)CdTe when an intermediate layer of ZnTe is grown first. The (111)B oriented layers are made of two domains which are rotated by 90°. A layer with only one domain can be grown on Si(100) misoriented by 8°, but the best misorientation for this purpose still needs to be found. These layers were characterized by reflection high-energy electron diffraction, photoluminescence spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and x-ray diffraction. Hg1−xCdxTe has also been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (111)B CdTe on Si(100).