Structural and optical characteristics of pulsed laser deposited ZnSe epilayers

Epilayers of ZnSe have been grown on GaAs substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The effects of the target purity, the temperature and the surface state of the substrate on the structural and optical properties of the thin films have been studied. The results obtained show that the PLD epilayers have a somewhat higher imperfection content than the layers grown by MOVPE. The reasons for this drawback are analyzed and improvements on the growth procedure are suggested.