Effect of the Cd0.96Zn0.04Te substrate polishing procedure on CdxHg1 − xTe liquid phase epitaxy

This paper examines the effect of polishing procedure on the surface quality of Cd0.96Zn0.04Te substrates for CdxHg1 − xTe liquid phase epitaxy. Two polishing procedures are tested: stepwise polishing involving abrasive, chemomechanical, and chemical steps with the use of various abrasives, and abrasive-free polishing. The optimal procedure is chemomechanical polishing with no abrasives. The type of substrate surface can be identified using the Nakagawa etchant, which produces etch patterns in the form of triangles on the A(111) surface and circles on the B(111) surface.