Molecular-Beam Epitaxial-Growth And Characterization Of (001) Hg1-Xcdxte-Hgte Superlattices

The molecular beam epitaxially growth of (001) Hg1-xCdxTe-HgTe superlattices has been systematically investigated. The well width as well as the period were determined directly by X-ray diffraction. This was accomplished for the well width by exploiting the high reflectivity from HgTe and the low reflectivity from CdTe for the (002) Bragg reflection. Knowing the well and barrier thicknesses we have been able to set an upper limit on the average composition of the barriers, xb, by annealing the superlattice and then measuring the composition of the resulting alloy. xb was shown to decrease exponentially with decreasing barrier width. xb is appreciably smaller in narrow barriers due to the increased significance of interdiffusion in the Hg1-xCdxTe/HgTe interface in narrow barriers. The IR photoluminescence was investigated at temperatures from 4.2 to 300 K. Pronounced photoluminescence was observed for all superlattices in this temperature range.© (1993) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.