Homo-epitaxial growth of CdTe by sublimation under low pressure

Abstract A new method to obtain a twin-free single crystal of CdTe on a CdTe substrate by sublimation is described. When CdTe(111)A substrates were employed for the homo-epitaxial growth of CdTe, twin crystals were frequently obtained. The substrate of CdTe(211)A and (211)B, however, gave no twins resulting in single crystals of high quality. The difference may come from the existence of many steps, sufficient to suppress two-dimensional nucleation and to promote step flow mechanism. To obtain twin-free films, therefore, a fairly large tilt angle of the substrate from a singular plane and a fairly low supersaturation are essential.