ION-ASSISTED SPUTTER DEPOSITION OF CdTe LAYERS.

Epitaxial, single-phase CdTe layers have been deposited on a variety of single-crystal substrates, including freshly cleaved KBr and NaCl and polished BaF//2, by ion-assisted, planar, rf magnetron sputtering. The substrate temperature and bias were used as independent, operator-controlled process parameters to greatly enhance the degree of orientation in the films and (or) modify the crystallographic form of the deposited layer. Thus, depending primarily on the substrate temperature and bias, the deposited CdTe films exhibited one of four forms. Compositional analysis revealed no impurities. However, films of all crystallographic phases contained a large density of planar defects such as twins, stacking faults, and low-angle grain boundaries.