Epitaxial growth of lattice-matched InSb/CdTe heterostructures on the GaAs(111) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

We report the growth of InSb/CdTe hetero-epitaxial thin films on the GaAs (111)B substrate using molecular beam epitaxy. The use of (111) orientation enables the fast strain relaxation during the CdTe buffer layer growth, and major crystallographic defects are confined near the CdTe/GaAs interface. Owing to the lattice matching between InSb and CdTe, layer-by-layer 2D growth of InSb is observed from the initial growth stage. Both smooth surface morphology and low defect density of the as-grown InSb/CdTe heterostructures give rise to the enhancement of electron mobility when the InSb layer thickness is reduced below 30 nm as compared to the InSb/GaAs counterparts. The integration of InSb/CdTe highlights the advantage of lattice-matched epitaxial growth and provides a promising approach to design high-quality III–V/II–VI hybrid systems for high-performance device applications.