Investigation of GaAs surface treatments for ZnSe growth by molecular beam epitaxy without a buffer layer

[Display omitted] •Clean and smooth surfaces are crucial for epitaxial regrowth of device structures.•Various surface treatments for epitaxial regrowth were investigated with ZnSe/GaAs.•The investigation shows the best result from atomic hydrogen cleaning at 300 °C.•It reveals an epitaxy regrowth without high temperature treatment or buffer growth. Atomically clean and smooth surfaces are critical prerequisites for the epitaxial regrowth of dissimilar semiconductors. Using ZnSe/GaAs as a model system, epitaxial regrowth without a buffer layer after thermal cleaning with various As-fluxes, atomic Ga flux, and atomic hydrogen treatments to the GaAs substrates and the surfaces were investigated via in-situ Auger electron spectroscopy. The ZnSe epilayers grown on the pre-treated GaAs surfaces without a buffer layer were characterized by X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and atomic force microscopy to evaluate the effectiveness of the surface treatment methods. It was found that a high quality ZnSe layer can be achieved by atomic hydrogen surface treatment at 300 °C without requiring GaAs buffer layer growth, which reveals a path for epitaxy growth avoiding high temperature treatments.