Epitaxial growth of HgTe by precracking metalorganic mercury and tellurium compounds

Diethyltelluride and dimethylmercury metalorganic sources were precracked for the expitaxial growth of HgTe on CdTe substrates. This method allows metalorganic sources to be decomposed at one temperature while epitaxial growth occurs at a different temperature that is lower. Therefore, the HgTe epitaxial growth can be performed at low temperature and low Hg partial pressure. The growth rate was around 2 μm/h for the growth temperature range 210–270 °C. The HgTe films are single crystalline and have good morphology. Room‐temperature carrier concentrations of 2×1017/cm3 and mobilities of 25 000 cm2/V s were obtained for epitaxial layers grown at 240 °C.