Influence of Growth Parameters on the Surface and Interface Quality of Laser Deposited InSb/CdTe Heterostructures

Abstract

The pulsed laser deposition technique has been employed for the growth of single crystalline oriented films of indium antimonide on bulk cadmium telluride substrates. The films grown during this study were tested for surface quality and interface features, generally prevalent due to film–substrate reactions. The composition of the grown film was found to deviate from that of the target owing to loss of antimony during evaporation, leading to the formation of an interfacial compound. The antimony deficiency in the films was compensated by correcting the target composition. Growth parameters and their effects on these manifestations have been studied. The optimization of these parameters has led to growth of layers with good surface morphology and abrupt interfaces. Efforts have been made to detect the origin of the diffuse interface and to identify the compound resulting at the interface through photoluminescence spectroscopy. Using PL and thermoenergetic calculations for the plausible reactions at the interface, we have ascertained that the interfacial compound is more likely to be In2Te3.

Raman spectroscopy from buried semiconductor interfaces: Structural and electronic properties

“…Key issues of these investigations were, e.g. the phase stability during MBE on (001) and (111) substrates , the application of laser deposition , rf‐sputtering deposition , or temperature‐gradient vapour transport deposition . Furthermore, the influence of substrate preparation and the application of α‐Sn interlayers were explored.…”

Synchrotron Radiation X‐Ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Studies of InSb Thin Films on GaAs Grown by Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition

“…In optoelectronic devices, one must grow ultrathin layers of InSb on semi-insulating infrared transparent substrates to prevent current leakage. While CdTe is the only semiinsulating lattice-matched substrate available for InSb growth, it is difficult, however, to avoid the formation of the In 2 Te 3 precipitates at the InSb/CdTe interface [43,44]. Hence, many alternative materials (viz., Si, GaAs, InP, sapphire, and mica) have been chosen as substrates for preparing InSb epifilms [2,[15][16][17][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] by molecular beam epitaxy, liquid-phase epitaxy [18,30], metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) [20][21][22]31], metalorganic magnetron sputtering [32,45], and two-step growth process [46] methods.…”

PLD-produced thin films A3B5, A2B6, A6B4and heterostructures based on them for IR detectors

“…By alternation of thin layers of narrow and wide bandgap materials, quantum well (QW) heterostructures are obtained, which are characterized by a (quasi-) discrete spectrum of carriers. Although both HJ-and QW-based detectors operate in a relatively narrow range of wavelengths, they surpass the detectors on usual p-n junctions in many other characteristics [2][3][4][5]. Among physical reasons underlying the potential advantages of HJ and QW detectors, we will mention here only those common for these two systems.…”

“…From this point of view, the technology of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is of particular interest. Due to its many peculiarities, PLD has recommended itself as an effective method of fabrication of thin films and (quantum well) heterostructures with improved and controllable parameters [3,4,9,10]. On the other hand, much work has already been carried out by several groups (see [11] and references therein) who report on the successful development of combinatorial and high-throughput methods based on this technique.…”