Doping ZnSe far from equilibrium

A crystal growth technique is presented which allows doping and compensation mechanisms in ZnSe to be probed. With this technique, neutron transmutation doping can be employed to incorporate dopants in the bulk crystal after growth is complete. Dopant incorporation here is far from equilibrium and may indeed represent the furthest limit from thermodynamic equilibrium possible in ZnSe. In this closed-tube technique, homoepitaxial layers of ZnSe are deposited by physical vapor transport from elemental zinc and selenium. Photoluminescence and X-ray diffraction are employed to characterize the layers. The layers have X-ray diffraction rocking curves with a full width at half minimum of less than 25 asec, and they display a photoluminescence spectrum with no dominant I/sub 1//sup d/ emission and a low level of deep emissions.