@phdthesis{Ames2015,
  author    = {Ames, Christopher},
  title     = {Molecular Beam Epitaxy of 2D and 3D HgTe, a Topological Insulator},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-151136},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {In the present thesis the MBE growth and sample characterization of HgTe structures is investigated and discussed. Due to the first experimental discovery of the quantum Spin Hall effect (QSHE) in HgTe quantum wells, this material system attains a huge interest in the spintronics society. Because of the long history of growing Hg-based heterostructures here at the Experimentelle Physik III in W{\"u}rzburg, there are very good requirements to analyze this material system more precisely and in new directions. Since in former days only doped HgTe quantum wells were grown, this thesis deals with the MBE growth in the (001) direction of undoped HgTe quantum wells, surface located quantum wells and three dimensional bulk layers. All Hg-based layers were grown on CdTe substrates which generate strain in the layer stack and provide therefore new physical effects. In the same time, the (001) CdTe growth was investigated on n-doped (001) GaAs:Si because the Japanese supplier of CdTe substrates had a supply bottleneck due to the Tohoku earthquake and its aftermath in 2011. After a short introduction of the material system, the experimental techniques were demonstrated and explained explicitly. After that, the experimental part of this thesis is displayed. So, the investigation of the (001) CdTe growth on (001) GaAs:Si is discussed in chapter 4. Firstly, the surface preparation of GaAs:Si by oxide desorption is explored and analyzed. Here, rapid thermal desorption of the GaAs oxide with following cool down in Zn atmosphere provides the best results for the CdTe due to small holes at the surface, while e.g. an atomic flat GaAs buffer deteriorates the CdTe growth quality. The following ZnTe layer supplies the (001) growth direction of the CdTe and exhibits best end results of the CdTe for 30 seconds growth time at a flux ratio of Zn/Te ~ 1/1.2. Without this ZnTe layer, CdTe will grow in the (111) direction. However, the main investigation is here the optimization of the MBE growth of CdTe. The substrate temperature, Cd/Te flux ratio and the growth time has to be adjusted systematically. Therefore, a complex growth process is developed and established. This optimized CdTe growth process results in a RMS roughness of around 2.5 nm and a FWHM value of the HRXRD w-scan of 150 arcsec. Compared to the literature, there is no lower FWHM value traceable for this growth direction. Furthermore, etch pit density measurements show that the surface crystallinity is matchable with the commercial CdTe substrates (around 1x10^4 cm^(-2)). However, this whole process is not completely perfect and offers still room for improvements. The growth of undoped HgTe quantum wells was also a new direction in research in contrast to the previous n-doped grown HgTe quantum wells. Here in chapter 5, the goal of very low carrier densities was achieved and therefore it is now possible to do transport experiments in the n - and p - region by tuning the gate voltage. To achieve this high sample quality, very precise growth of symmetric HgTe QWs and their HRXRD characterization is examined. Here, the quantum well thickness can now determined accurate to under 0.3 nm. Furthermore, the transport analysis of different quantum well thicknesses shows that the carrier density and mobility increase with rising HgTe layer thickness. However, it is found out that the band gap of the HgTe QW closes indirectly at a thickness of 11.6 nm. This is caused by the tensile strained growth on CdTe substrates. Moreover, surface quantum wells are studied. These quantum wells exhibit no or a very thin HgCdTe cap. Though, oxidization and contamination of the surface reduces here the carrier mobility immensely and a HgCdTe layer of around 5 nm provides the pleasing results for transport experiments with superconductors connected to the topological insulator [119]. A completely new achievement is the realization of MBE growth of HgTe quantum wells on CdTe/GaAs:Si substrates. This is attended by the optimization of the CdTe growth on GaAs:Si. It exposes that HgTe quantum wells grown in-situ on optimized CdTe/GaAs:Si show very nice transport data with clear Hall plateaus, SdH oscillations, low carrier densities and carrier mobilities up to 500 000 cm^2/Vs. Furthermore, a new oxide etching process is developed and analyzed which should serve as an alternative to the standard HCl process which generates volcano defects at some time. However, during the testing time the result does not differ in Nomarski, HRXRD, AFM and transport measurements. Here, long-time tests or etching and mounting in nitrogen atmosphere may provide new elaborate results. The main focus of this thesis is on the MBE growth and standard characterization of HgTe bulk layers and is discussed in chapter 6. Due to the tensile strained growth on lattice mismatched CdTe, HgTe bulk opens up a band gap of around 22 meV at the G-point and exhibits therefore its topological surface states. The analysis of surface condition, roughness, crystalline quality, carrier density and mobility via Nomarski, AFM, XPS, HRXRD and transport measurements is therefore included in this work. Layer thickness dependence of carrier density and mobility is identified for bulk layer grown directly on CdTe substrates. So, there is no clear correlation visible between HgTe layer thickness and carrier density or mobility. So, the carrier density is almost constant around 1x10^11 cm^(-2) at 0 V gate voltage. The carrier mobility of these bulk samples however scatters between 5 000 and 60 000 cm^2/Vs almost randomly. Further experiments should be made for a clearer understanding and therefore the avoidance of unusable bad samples.But, other topological insulator materials show much higher carrier densities and lower mobility values. For example, Bi2Se3 exhibits just density values around 1019 cm^(-2) and mobility values clearly below 5000 cm2/Vs. The carrier density however depends much on lithography and surface treatment after growth. Furthermore, the relaxation behavior and critical thickness of HgTe grown on CdTe is determined and is in very good agreement with theoretical prediction (d_c = 155 nm). The embedding of the HgTe bulk layer between HgCdTe layers created a further huge improvement. Similar to the quantum well structures the carrier mobility increases immensely while the carrier density levels at around 1x10^11 cm^(-2) at 0 V gate voltage as well. Additionally, the relaxation behavior and critical thickness of these barrier layers has to be determined. HgCdTe grown on commercial CdTe shows a behavior as predicted except the critical thickness which is slightly higher than expected (d_c = 850 nm). Otherwise, the relaxation of HgCdTe grown on CdTe/GaAs:Si occurs in two parts. The layer is fully strained up to 250 nm. Between 250 nm and 725 nm the HgCdTe film starts to relax randomly up to 10 \%. The relaxation behavior for thicknesses larger than 725 nm occurs than linearly to the inverse layer thickness. A explanation is given due to rough interface conditions and crystalline defects of the CdTe/GaAs:Si compared to the commercial CdTe substrate. HRXRD and AFM data support this statement. Another point is that the HgCdTe barriers protect the active HgTe layer and because of the high carrier mobilities the Hall measurements provide new transport data which have to be interpreted more in detail in the future. In addition, HgTe bulk samples show very interesting transport data by gating the sample from the top and the back. It is now possible to manipulate the carrier densities of the top and bottom surface states almost separately. The back gate consisting of the n-doped GaAs substrate and the thick insulating CdTe buffer can tune the carrier density for Delta(n) ~ 3x10^11 cm^(-2). This is sufficient to tune the Fermi energy from the p-type into the n-type region [138]. In this thesis it is shown that strained HgTe bulk layers exhibit superior transport data by embedding between HgCdTe barrier layers. The n-doped GaAs can here serve as a back gate. Furthermore, MBE growth of high crystalline, undoped HgTe quantum wells shows also new and extended transport output. Finally, it is notable that due to the investigated CdTe growth on GaAs the Hg-based heterostructure MBE growth is partially independent from commercial suppliers.},
  subject      = {Quecksilbertellurid},
  language  = {en}
}