Growth of Cubic Zinc Sulfide on (001) GaP Substrates

We report on the successful growth of ZnS epilayers on GaP (001) substrates using a CVD setup. The crystal structure of our layers is cubic zinc blende. The structural aspects and surface morphologies of ZnS films with different thicknesses and growth temperatures have been investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Furthermore, low temperature photoluminescence (PL) at 4 K was used to determine optical properties. The appearance of two acceptor related transistions was found to correlate with our analysis of impurity incorporation by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The high structural quality and low impurity levels are promising for the further development of the material system, aiming at an application as transparent conductive material.