High-quality ZnSe epilayers on GaAs substrates have been grown by MOCVD. Diethylzinc (DEZn) and diethylselenide (DESe) were used as source materials. Growth studies were done at 400°C under different growth conditions in an atmospheric pressure MOCVD reactor. The as-grown ZnSe epilayers were characterized by a wide variety of techniques, such as double crystal x-ray diffraction, low-temperature photoluminescence (PL), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

The results show excellent structural and optical properties of ZnSe. The best material was grown on undoped GaAs at the VI/II ratio near unity. The full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) of ZnSe (∼0.2/μm thick) x-ray peak as low as 90 arc seconds was achieved. TEM results also show very low defect density. The density of stacking faults is less than 105/cm2 which is four orders of magnitude less than that of samples grown by conventional MBE [J. Petruzzello et al. J. Appl. Phys. 63, 2299 (1988)] and MOCVD [J.L. Batstone et al. Philos. Mag A, 66, 609, 1992]. The spacing between misfit dislocations is between 5 to 10,μm which is one order of magnitude larger than that of reported sample of comparable thickness.