Influence of Ga-As-Te interfacial phases on the orientation of epitaxial CdTe on GaAs

Abstract

When CdTe is grown by molecular beam or organometallic vapor phase epitaxy on (100) GaAs, the layer can grow with either a (100) or (111) orientation. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction and Auger studies are presented here which show that adsorption of different submonolayer amounts of Te on a GaAs surface can change the surface symmetry and the resulting CdTe orientation. A precursor surface to (111) growth results from the formation of a relatively Te-poor Ga-As-Te surface phase. A relatively Te-rich structure yields a surface with (100) symmetry and lead to (100) growth.