Nanoindentation Studies of the MBE-Grown, Zero-Gap (Hg,Cd)Te Epilayers

(Hg,Cd)Te epilayers containing a dozen percent of CdTe were grown by molecular beam epitaxy technique on GaAs wafers with thick CdTe buffer layers. The X-ray diffraction method was used to determine a chemical composition of the epilayers. The scanning electron microscopy measurements in turn were performed to determine the thickness of epilayers, and both scanning electron and atomic force microscopy to evaluate structures' morphology. The selected mechanical properties of samples were studied by the nanoindentation technique. The average values and standard deviations of the nanohardness and Young's modulus were extracted from the collected load-displacement data. The values of both parameters were compared with those determined for bulk crystals and those known from the literature.