ON THE MECHANISM OF REFLECTION HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRON-DIFFRACTION OSCILLATIONS STUDIED BY PHASE-LOCKED EPITAXY OF ZNSE

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is one of the most promising methods for growth of sophisticated device structures. Starting the growth on a fl at surface, reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) oscill ations occur. The question which phase of the oscillations corresponds to lattice plane completion and the most flat surface morphology is n ot yet fully resolved. There is hardly a direct access to the answer. Phase-locked epitaxy (PLE), however, appears to be a tool for studying this phase problem. PLE permits the growth of layers without losing R HEED oscillations due to damping the thickness of which is great enoug h to become measurable by common techniques. This enables to compare t he directly determined layer thickness with that obtained by counting the number of RHEED oscillation periods. Results are presented that sh ow the phase relation between RHEED oscillations and lattice plane com pletion.