Growth and optical characteristics of ZnCdSe/ZnSe QWs on Si substrate with ZnO buffer

In this paper, the growth and characteristics of ZnCdSe/ZnSe quantum wells (QWs) prepared on ZnO-Si (111) templates are reported. An oriented ZnO thin film with a smooth surface was employed to be the buffer layer for the ZnCdSe/ZnSe QWs growth. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) patterns showed that the ZnO buffer layer improved the smoothness of the ZnCdSe/ZnSe sample. Up to the 3rd longitudinal optical phonon of Zn0.56Cd0.44Se observed in Raman spectra suggests that the crystal quality of ZnCdSe/ZnSe QWs is reasonably good. The influence of quantum confinement effect on exciton characters of the QWs was also demonstrated.