The electrical properties of n-CdTe films grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (001) InSb substrates were studied with a view to examining the influence of dislocations arising from strain relaxation in these materials. It was shown that the observed non-uniformity in free carrier density as a function of depth through the films could be explained by electron trapping at dislocations assuming that the density of dislocations diminishes with distance from the substrate surface in proportion to the spatially distributed strain within the films. From a comparison of the experimentally deduced and theoretically derived values for the maximum dislocation density, it was concluded that CdTe layers grown using a stoichiometric Cd/Te flux were characterized by an interfacial layer, probably In2Te3, consistent with independent evidence from X-ray diffraction studies.

Influence of Misfit Dislocations on the Electrical Properties of CdTe Layers Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy on InSb. G.M.Khattak, G.W.Matthews, C.G.Scott, M.Yousaf: Applied Physics Letters, 2004, 84[20], 4053-5