Growth of CdZnTe (211) epilayers on GaAs by close spaced sublimation as an alternative substrate for HgCdTe growth

•CdZnTe (211)/GaAs epitaxial films were prepared by Close Spaced Sublimation.•The effect of temperature on the crystalline quality of CdZnTe films has been investigated.•CdZnTe films with a low dislocation density were obtained. Cd0.96Zn0.04Te crystals are perfect substrates for epitaxial growth of HgCdTe films due to good lattice matching, but they are limited by cost factors. To grow a replacement substrate for the subsequent growth of low-cost, high-yield HgCdTe IR materials, CdZnTe epitaxial films have been fabricated by close-spaced sublimation on GaAs substrates, and the effect of substrate temperature on the crystalline quality of CdZnTe films has been investigated. The results of EBSD and TEM indicate that the surface is oriented in (211) and the low temperatures enhance the crystalline quality of the film. The results of dislocation density (average etch pit density ∼3.6 × 105 cm−2) and energy dispersive spectrometer (Zn content ∼5 %) indicate that CdZnTe films with appropriate Zn content and excellent crystal quality can be obtained by the close spaced sublimation method, which is expected to be applied for molecular beam epitaxy growth of HgCdTe films.