A variety of BeMgZnSe–ZnSe- as well as BeTe-based quantum-well structures has been fabri- cated and investigated. BeTe buffer layers improve the growth start on GaAs substrates drasti- cally compared to ZnSe/GaAs. The valence-band offset between BeTe and ZnSe has been determined to be 0.9 eV (type II). Due to the high-lying valence band of BeTe, a BeTe–ZnSe pseudograding can be used for an efficient electrical contact between p-ZnSe and p-GaAs. BeMgZnSe quaternary thin-film structures have reproducibly been grown with high struc- tural quality, and rocking curve widths below 20 arcsec could be reached. Quantum-well structures show a high photoluminescence intensity even at room temperature.

The E0 band gap energies and the lattice constants of zinc-blende Zn1−xMgxSe alloys grown by molecular beam epitaxy in the composition range of 0≤x≤0.95 are determined. A nonlinear dependence on the composition is observed for both the band-gap energies and the lattice con- stants of the ternary alloys. To our knowledge this is an initial report of a bowing in the lattice constant of a ternary II–VI alloy. Considering the bowings, the band-gap energy and the lattice constant of zinc-blende MgSe are extrapolated to be about 4.0 eV and 5.91 Å, respectively.

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The temperature dependence of the energy gap of zinc-blende CdSe and Cd1−xZnxSe has been determined over the entire range of composition from optical transmission and reflection measurements at temperatures between 5 and 300 K. The experimental results can be expressed by the following modified empirical Varshni formula, whose parameters are functions of the composition x: Eg(x,T)=Eg(x,0)−β(x)T2/[T+γ(x)]. Eg(x,0) exhibits a nonlinear dependence on composition, according to Eg=Eg(0,0)(1−x)+Eg(1,0)x−ax(1−x). The parameters β(x) and γ(x) can be expressed by β(x)=β(0)(1−x)+β(1)x+bx(1−x) and γ(x)=γ(0)(1−x)+γ(1)x.

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