The growth of BeSe on vicinal Si(001) substrates has been investigated
by molecular beam epitaxy. Reflection high energy electron diffractio
n was used to study the initial growth mode and the surface structure.
Efforts have been done at the early steps of the growth in order to o
ptimize the interface quality. Transmission electron microscopy reveal
ed a BeSe layer relaxed with misfit dislocations and stacking faults t
hat are mainly confined near the heterointerface. These results are pr
omising in view of the growth of Zn0.55Be0.45Se alloy that is lattice
matched to silicon. There will be many potential applications of this
alloy-in the case of a direct band gap-in the frame of Si-based optoel
ectronic devices. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.