GROWTH AND OPTICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF DILUTED MAGNETIC SEMICONDUCTORZN1-XMNXSE ZNSE STRAINED-LAYER SUPERLATTICES/

Zn1-xMnxSe/ZnSe strained-layer superlattices are grown by molecular be am epitaxy on GaAs(100) substrates and characterized by x-ray diffract ion and low temperature photoluminescence. For the case where the tota l thickness of a Zn1-xMnxSe/ZnSe superlattice is well below the critic al value, the structure grows pseudomorphically to the buffer layer. A blue shift of 6 meV of the excitonic peak is observed and has been ex plained by the carrier confinement effect only. For the case of a Zn1- xMnxSe/ZnSe superlattice with a thickness larger than its critical val ues, we show that it can be treated as free-standing with ZnSe under t ension and Zn1-xMnxSe under compression. The strain present can overwh elm the quantum confinement to produce a net red shift of 2 meV of the near band-edge feature. The energy shifts due to the strain and quant um confinement are calculated on the basis of deformation potential th eory and Bastard's method, showing good agreement with the experimenta l results. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.