Temperature influence on the crystal structure of CdTe(111) films grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on GaAs(100) substrates

The results of CdTe film growth by molecular beam epitaxy at different temperatures on undoped semi-insulating GaAs substrates with the crystallographic surface orientation (100) without a seed layer are presented. Preparation of an atomically clean substrate surface with subsequent synthesis of GaAs and CdTe films were carried out in a single ultrahigh vacuum system with in situ control by reflection high-energy electron diffraction and pyrometry. Using high-resolution X-ray diffractometry, photoluminescence spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy, the effect of growth temperature on the structural quality of epitaxial CdTe films was studied. It was shown that the synthesized epitaxial CdTe films have a predominant crystallographic orientation (111) with twinning, and their crystalline quality monotonically improves with an increase in the substrate growth temperature to 450$^\circ$C.