Transition from island formation to pseudomorphic growth in the submonolayer CdSe/ZnSe multilayer system

Abstract
Transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence measurements have been performed on samples with submonolayer (0.3 up to 0.9 ML) CdSe insertions in ZnSe in both single- and multilayer geometries. We observe a significant difference in Cd distribution in the layer plane between these two geometries for the same Cd coverage. While Cd-rich islands can be seen for a single layer of Cd, a layered growth is achieved in the multilayer samples. This effect is attributed to the reduction of lattice mismatch in the multilayer samples due to a high level of diffusion of Cd atoms along the growth direction.