The morphology and structure of metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy grown homoepitaxial (1 0 0)ZnTe layers on high-quality substrates grown by the vertical gradient freezing method is reported. Growth below 350 °C leads to surface ridging along a 〈1 1 0〉 in-plane direction of the epilayer, the morphology of samples grown at or above 350 °C depending instead on the Te:Zn ad-atom relative abundance. Nearly featureless morphology is observed for epilayers grown under Zn-rich or nearly stoichiometric surface conditions, whereas large pyramid-like hillocks develop on Te-rich surfaces, their density reaching up to 106-107 cm-2. Hillock formation is supposed to be driven by Te ad-atoms experiencing a Schwoebel potential barrier at the step edges around spiral centres, the latter ascribed to partial dislocation pairs bounding stacking faults (SFs). Analysis of the X-ray diffuse scattering intensity around the (4 0 0) reciprocal lattice point of the samples demonstrates that SFs occur in epilayers grown at or above 350 °C, their density increasing with the growth temperature. The SF average diameter on 1 1 1 planes is estimated as ∼200-300 nm. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

cited By 10; Conference of Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Crystal Growth and the 12th Internatioanl Conference on Vapor Growth and Epitaxy ; Conference Code:64470