A study of ZnTe films grown on glass substrates using an atomic layer evaporation method

Thin zinc telluride films were grown on amorphous substrates by the alternate evaporation of monolayers of zinc and tellurium with the aid of the atomic layer evaporation (ALE) method. The films were characterized by a number of surface sensitive analysis techniques, by X-ray diffraction and by optical absorption. The films were found to be clean, smooth and featureless, and they crystallized with a preferential orientation in the (111) direction. There seemed to be no narrow-range “optimum” temperature affecting the quality of the crystals when grown by using ALE, in sharp contrast to the case in which the films were grown by codepositing the elements. The electronic structure of the films exhibited characteristics features of the bulk material, as deduced from the angle-resolved photoemission and optical absorption. In addition, some features which might be related to particular properties of the surface were present in the photoemission spectra.