Growth and annealing effect of high-quality ZnSe:N/ZnSe by MOCVD

The ZnSe : N epitaxial layers were grown on (1 1 0) ZnSe substrates in a low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system using hydrogen as a carrier gas, and using ammonia as a dopant source. In order to obtain highly doped ZnSe : N epitaxial layers, the optimum growth and doping conditions were determined by studying the photoluminescence (PL) spectra from the ZnSe epitaxial layers grown at different ammonia flux and VI/II flux ratio. Furthermore, in order to enhance the concentration of active nitrogen in ZnSe epitaxial layer, a rapid thermal anneal technique was used for post-heat-treating. The results show that the annealing temperature of over 1023 K is necessary. Beside, a novel treatment method to obtain a smooth substrate surface for growing high quality ZnSe epitaxial layers is also described.