A chemical assessment of the suitability of allyl-iso-propyltelluride as aTe precursor for metal organic vapour phase epitaxy

The chemical studies, which led to the testing of allyl-iso-propyltelluride (allylTePr(i)) as a Te precursor in metal organic vapour phase epitaxy are presented. The pyrolysis in hydrogen of allylTePr(i) gave products includi ng 1,5-hexadiene, propane and propene. Co-pyrolysis of dimethylcadmium (Me2 Cd) and allylTePr(i) gave the hydrocarbons expected from the pyrolysis of t he individual precursors plus additional hydrocarbons including 2-methylpro pane and l-butene, Plots of percentage decomposition versus temperature, wh ich proved extremely useful in determining the likely growth temperatures f or both CdTe and HgTe, showed that allylTePr(i) is less stable than both (P r2Te)-Te-i (di-iso-propyltelluride) and Me2Cd. The possible role of Hg in t he growth of CdTe is also discussed. The chemistry of allylTePr(i) is well suited for use as an efficient precursor for epitaxial growth of tellurium containing semiconductors since there is very little formation of other org anotellurium compounds on pyrolysis. Crown Copyright (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.