OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF CdTe/ZnTe ULTRATHIN QUANTUM WELLS GROWN BY ATOMIC LAYER EPITAXY

Abstract

Ultrathin quantum wells (UTQWs) of CdTe within ZnTe barriers were successfully grown by atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) on GaAs(001) substrates. ALE growth of CdTe was performed by alternate exposure of the substrate surface to individual fluxes of Cd and Te. Two different samples with 2-monolayer (ML) (substrate temperature Ts= 270° C ) and 4 ML (Ts = 290° C ) CdTe QWs were grown. Low temperature photoluminescence (PL) experiments exhibited intense and sharp peaks associated to the 2 ML QWs at 2.26 eV. In the case of the nominally 4-ML-thick QW the PL spectrum presented an intense peak around 2.13 eV and two weak features around 2.04 and 1.91 eV. The first peak is attributed to ~ 3 ML QW and the second one to ~ 4 ML QW. The dominance of the 3 ML peak is mainly attributed to Cd loss in the QW due to its substitution by Zn atoms. Due to a high diffusion length of the photogenerated carriers in the barriers, quite weak signals from the ZnTe barriers were observed in both cases. Room temperature (RT) photoreflectance (PR) spectra showed contributions from the CdTe UTQWs, the ZnTe barriers, and the GaAs substrate.