Narrow gap IV-VI materials like PbS, PbSnSe and PbSnTe are used for infrared detector device fabrication [1,2]. Earlier an intermediate Ila-fluoride buffer layer, which consisted of a BaF2/CaF2-stack of about 2000 Å thickness, was used to get epitaxial high quality layers on silicon substrates. This buffer is now reduced to a much thinner layer of only about 20 Å thick CaF2, regardless the large lattice mismatch between layer and substrate [3,4,5]. The question therefore arises if high quality IV-VI layers can be grown on Si-substrates without any buffer layer as e.g. in CdTe/Si or GaAs/Si systems.

The aim of this work is to grow IV-VI layers directly on Si-substrates without any buffer layers to study the growth kinetics and epitaxial quality. PbSe was chosen as a representant of IV-VI materials, and layers were grown on (111)- and (100)-oriented silicon substrates.