Order–disorder transition in epitaxial ZnSnP2

Abstract

We report on the growth of ZnSnP2 on GaAs(100) substrates by gas source molecular beam epitaxy. Samples were grown in the temperature range of 300–360 °C. A small change in the Sn/Zn flux ratio at constant substrate temperature was found to result in a transition from a lattice mismatched, Δa/a∼0.4%–0.7%, disordered crystal structure to a lattice matched, ordered chalcopyrite structure. Infrared reflectance and Raman measurements were used to monitor this phase transition. Formation of the two different crystal modifications is discussed in terms of vapor–solid and vapor–liquid–solid growth modes.

Impurity band conduction and negative magnetoresistance in p‐ZnSnAs2 thin films

“…Nevertheless, this slight difference in lattice constant was expected because the growths were performed using the LT-MBE (T s = 300 °C) technique which introduces defects, causing lattice constant variations. The lattice constant elongation could be due to the disorder similar to the results reported by Seryogin and coworkers in ZnSnP 2 thin films [15]. Fringes indicating good crystalline and interfacial qualities can be clearly seen from HRXRD measurement results.…”

MBE growth of Mn-doped ZnSnAs2 thin films

“…[10,11] to the reported bulk value, leading us to speculate that although the formation of sphalerite phase can never be discounted, the Mn-doped ZnSnAs 2 prepared in this work has a relatively higher concentration of chalcopyrite crystalline phase as a result of the slower growth rate employed. We believe that this transition towards the higher chalcopyrite phase content eventually led to the roughening of the surface in the same way as that observed by Seryogin et al [21] in their investigation of order-disorder transition in epitaxial ZnSnP 2 . This roughening, in turn, resulted to the formation of the {11 2} twins discussed above.…”

Bulk crystal growth and characterization of ZnSnP2 compound semiconductor by flux method

“…In these reports, it was shown that ZnSnP 2 crystals with chalcopyrite or sphalerite structures were obtained depending the cooling rate during crystal growth. The change of the crystal structure is attributed to the orderdisorder transition, where the ordered and the disordered phases are chalcopyrite and sphalerite phases, respectively [11]. In the disordered phase, Zn and Sn atoms ramdomly occupy on their sites.…”