Growth of Nanocrystalline ZnSe:N Films by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Nanocrystalline zinc-blende-structured ZnSe:N films have been deposited on GaAs(100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The growth of the nanocrystalline ZnSe:N films is found to be greatly affected by the pressure of ambient N₂. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) results show that the morphologies of the as-grown films are sensitive to the ambient pressure at a fixed substrate temperature of 300 °C, and the sizes of the as-grown ZnSe:N nanocrystals increase as the ambient pressure increases from 0.1 Pa to 100 Pa. The average sizes of the as-grown nanocrystals are estimated to be about 19 nm, 29 nm, and 71 nm for 0.1 Pa, 1 Pa, and 100 Pa ambient N₂ pressure, respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses show that the N-doping concentration in the as-grown film is over 10²¹ cm⁻³. Raman spectra demonstrate the broadening of the longitudinal optical (LO) phonon and transverse optical (TO) phonon modes of the ZnSe nanocrystals. Based on these analyses, the mechanism of the formation of ZnSe:N nanocrystals is discussed.