Abstract

Cadmium zinc telluride (Cd1-xZnxTe) epitaxial layers were grown by vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) to obtain material suitable for applications in photonics and radiation detectors. The VPE experiments were carried out in the modified Pfeiffer Classic 500 coating system, using Si 6-in substrates and Cd1-xZnxTe ternary sources grown by the Bridgman method. To study the effect of source composition, the Cd1-xZnxTe sources and as-grown layers were characterized by a scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), composition analysis (EDAX) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). It was shown that the prolonged VPE growth is followed by the continuous deterioration of source composition that results in an inhomogeneous enrichment of Cd1-xZnxTe layers with Zn. Nevertheless, the fast VPE runs using the sources in the form of thin polycrystalline wafers provide the uniform Cd1-xZnxTe layers that could be considered for applications. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.