Epitaxial growth of PbTe on (100) GaAs substrates

The growth of PbTe films on GaAs by molecular beam epitaxy was studied by reflection high energy diffraction. The strains in the films were investigated by X-ray diffraction. Despite a lattice mismatch of 14.2%, oriented films can be grown up to a thickness of 4000 Å. For thicker films the thermal strain causes cracks if the samples are cooled from growth to liquid-nitrogen temperature. © 1988.