Interdiffusion at the Mn-CdTe(110) interface and the formation of metastable ternary semimagnetic semiconductor alloys

Mn vacuum deposition at room temperature onto CdTe(110) surfaces cleaved in situ yields atomic interdiffusion for metal coverages 3 as a result of a partial Mn-Cd exchange reaction in the interface region. Synchrotron-radiation photoemission measurements show the reaction product to be a Cd1-xMnxTe semimagnetic semiconductor surface alloy. Large values of the average Mn concentration are achieved in such metastable interface reaction product. We use these results to explore the composition dependence of the electronic structure of ternary semimagnetic semiconductors.