Investigation of growth mode behavior and surface morphology evolution of metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy grown ZnTe layers on (001) GaAs

A systematic investigation on the mechanisms of nucleation and surface morphology evolution was performed on ZnTe epilayers, deposited on chemically etched GaAs~001! by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. A 2D-3D growth mode transition was observed at around two ZnTe equivalent monolyers ~ML!, which was ascribed to a Stransky-Krastanow growth mode. The 3D growth behavior was correlated to the development of $n11%-type planes, leading to a surface ridging effect along the @11¯0# direction for 4000-ML-thick ZnTe epilayers. The use of a solid-on- solid kinetic roughening model allowed the identification of a mechanism that limits the self- organization of ZnTe nanosized islands, namely, the high density of kink sites found in non- atomically flat GaAs substrates.