Selective growth of CdTe on Si and GaAs substrates using metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

Epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) is a new technique to grow low-defect-density thin films on lattice-mismatched substrates. For the ELO growth of CdTe and HgCdTe on Si substrate to be successful, the first requirement is that the growth should be selective. To that end, we have used several mask materials, and several growth conditions in order to obtain selective growth. A number of growth-experiments have been carried out, with temperatures in the range from 380°C to 550°C, and pressures in the range from 380 torr to less than 20 torr. Perfectly selective growth of CdTe has been achieved on Si and GaAs substrates using Si3N4 as the mask layer. Successful lateral epitaxial growth of CdTe was also achieved.