Epitaxial growth and characterization of CuInSe2 crystallographic polytypes

Migration-enhanced epitaxy (MEE) has been successfully employed to grow epitaxial films of the ternary compound CuInSe2 on (001) GaAs that exhibit distinct coexisting domains of both a nonequilibrium crystallographic structure characterized by CuAu (CA) cation ordering, and the compound’s equilibrium chalcopyrite structure. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron diffraction, and Raman scattering data provide evidence for this structural polytype. Distinctive signatures of the CA polytype are found in the data from each of these methods, and their analyses are consistent with assignment of this crystallographic structure to the P4̄m2 space group. This structure is found to preferentially segregate into domains that constitute a distinct metastable phase, which may be stabilized by surface kinetic effects favored by the MEE growth process.