Abstract
The effects of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) on CdTe/Si (100) heterostructures have been studied in order to improve the structural quality of CdTe epilayers. Samples of CdTe (111) polycrystalline thin films grown by vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) on Si (100) substrates have been investigated. The strained structures were rapidly thermally annealed at 400°C, 450°C, 500°C, 550°C, and 600°C for 10 sec. The microstructural properties of the CdTe films were characterized by carrying out scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). We have shown that the structural quality of the CdTe epilayers improves significantly with increasing annealing temperature. The optimum annealing temperature resulting in the highest film quality has been found to be 500°C. Additionally, we have shown that the surface nucleation characterized by the island size distribution can be correlated with the crystalline quality of the film.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
E.R. Gertner, S.H. Shin, D.D. Edwall, L.O. Bubulac, D.S. Lo, and W.E. Tennant, Appl. Phys. Lett. 46, 851 (1985).
N.C. Giles-Taylor, R.N. Bicknell, D.K. Blanks, T.H. Myers, and J.F. Schetzina, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 3, 76 (1985).
J. Thompson, K.T. Woodhouse, and C. Dineen, J. Cryst. Growth 77, 452 (1986).
R.F.C. Farrow, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 3, 60 (1985).
R.E. Kay, R.C. Bean, K.R. Zanio, C. Ito, and D. McIntyre, Appl. Phys. Lett. 51, 2211 (1987).
Y.P. Chen, S. Sivananthan, and J.P. Faurie, J. Electron. Mater. 22, 951 (1993).
C.H. Wang, K.Y. Cheng, and S.J. Yang, Appl. Phys. Lett. 46, 962 (1985).
H. Sitter, K. Lischa, W. Faschinger, J. Wolfrum, H. Pascher, and J.L. Pautrat, J. Cryst. Growth 86, 377 (1988).
N.V. Sochinskii, E. Dieguez, E. Alves, M.F. da Silva, J.C. Soares, S. Bernardi, J. Garrido, and F. Agullo-Rueda, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 11, 248 (1996).
J. Rams, N.V. Sochinskii, V. Munoz, and J.M. Cabrera, Appl. Phys. A 71, 277 (2000).
H. Ebe and Y. Nishijima, Appl. Phys. Lett. 67, 3138 (2005).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Neretina, S., Sochinskii, N.V. & Mascher, P. Optical and microstructural characterization of the effects of rapid thermal annealing of CdTe thin films grown on Si (100) substrates. J. Electron. Mater. 34, 786–790 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-005-0021-9
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-005-0021-9