Comparison of epitaxial films of Zn1-xMnxTe on (111) and (100) GaAs produced by pulsed laser deposition

Epitaxial films of Zn1−xMnxTe about 0.6 μm thick were grown on (111) and (100) GaAs substrates by pulsed laser deposition. Surface morphologies in the (111) and (100) cases differed little, but roughness increased in both cases as x was increased. X-ray diffraction revealed high crystalline quality for the (111) epilayers up to x = 0.15, and two textures could be distinguished in the rocking curves: a texture of halfwidth of the order of 1000 arcs due to a highly defective Zn1-xMnxTe/GaAs interface layer, and a texture of about 200 arcs due to a higher quality layer further from the interface. Films on (100) GaAs were of poorer crystalline quality with no evidence of two textures. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis showed (111) and (100) films which were about 15% and 4% cation deficient, respectively. In general, the Zn: Mn ratio of the target was not retained in the films.