Epitaxial Growth and Optical Properties of PbTe/CdTe Semiconductor Heterostructures

Growth optimization, optical and structural properties of PbTe/CdTe multilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs (001) as well as on $BaF_2$ (111) substrates is reported. An intense photoluminescence in the mid-infrared region is observed from PbTe quantum wells excited with 1.17 eV pulsed YAG:Nd laser. The energy of the emission peak shows blue shift with decreasing PbTe well width and has a positive temperature coefficient. The influence of thermal annealing on photoluminescence spectra of PbTe/CdTe multilayers grown on $BaF_2$ substrate is discussed.