Cryst. Res. Technol. 41, No. 10, 939 – 945 (2006) / DOI 10.1002/crat.200610701 © 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Growth of cadmium zinc telluride by liquid phase electroepitaxy N. Armour 1 , H. Sheibani 2 , and S. Dost* 1 1 Crystal Growth Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria BC, V8W 3P6, Canada 2 Department of Industrial Engineering, Alhosn University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emitates Received 27 January 2006, accepted 16 March 2006 Published online 15 September 2006 Key words crystal growth, electroepitaxy, cadmium telluride. PACS 64.70.Dv, 66.30.Qa This study was undertaken to examine the feasibility of growing CdZnTe by liquid phase electroepitaxy. Based on our successful LPEE system of GaInAs, a new crucible to grow CdZnTe was developed. The development presented numerous difficulties. The physical properties of CdZnTe make this material very difficult to grow. All components of the system were investigated. Electromigration of the solute across the solution carries species towards the growth interface. In liquid Cd-Zn-Te, the CdTe and ZnTe species remain associated, contrary to the GaInAs system. Experiments showed that LPEE growth of CdZnTe is possible and the electromigration mechanism functions well in the CdZnTe solution. Despite this, other problems remained with the new LPEE system. The preparation of the solution proved difficult without pressurizing the LPEE crucible. Control of the reaction required the use of pre-compounded CdTe and ZnTe. Proper control of the solution saturation is imperative to ensure minimal dissolution of the seed prior to growth initiation and a reasonable growth rate during growth. The solution remained an issue during the duration of growth due to the high vapor pressures of the constituents. Tellurium evaporation during growth could lower solution volume until electrical contact across the solution is broken. Careful preparation of appropriate solution volume was imperative for successful growth. In LPEE, a uniform electric current passage across the growth interface is necessary for uniform and stable growth interface. This requires the design of a uniform contact zone between the bottom graphite electrode and the seed crystal. The contact zone issue was not adequately resolved in this study. However, a number of successful growth runs were achieved despite the electrical contact problems. Results show that the LPEE of growth CdZnTe is feasible. © 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1 Introduction The production of CdZnTe across its composition range is of interest due to many device applications. In the 4% Zn range, it is used as a lattice matched substrate to HgCdTe near infrared detection device layers [1,2]. A lattice- matched substrate allows for preparation of strain free detector. In the higher zinc composition ranges, the material has application as a solid state detector for hard x-rays and gamma rays. The advantage of a CdZnTe detector over current Ge-based detectors is that it can operate at much higher temperatures [3]. This negates the need for cryogenic cooling of the detector required for Ge-based devices, significantly reducing the cost of implementing a solid-state high energy photon detector. LPEE is a relatively new, promising technique for producing high quality, thick crystals of compound and alloy semiconductors. The LPEE growth technique was developed during the use of electric current for dopant modulation in LPE [4], and became a solution growth technique for growth of binary and ternary semiconductor crystals (see for instance [5-12]). Growth in LPEE is initiated and sustained by passing an electric current through the substrate-solution- source system while the overall furnace temperature is kept constant. Since growth takes place at a constant furnace temperature, LPEE has a number of advantages such as, steady and controlled growth rate, controlled ____________________ * Corresponding author: e-mail: sdost@me.uvic.ca