9320415 Tamargo This proposal is for the growth and characterization of novel ternary and quaternary II-VI compound semiconductors and heterostructures that will provide a range of unique properties needed for the design of practical visible light emitters. At present, rudimentary blue-green lasers based on ZnCdSe/ZnSe heterostructures have been demonstrated. The ternary is the small bandgap material or well. However, non-ideal band offsets between those two materials and defects due to lattice mismatch within the II-VI structure and with the substrate limit the performance of the device. As in III-V technology, it is possible to combine binary II-VI compounds to form ternary and quaternary alloys and thus adjust the band structure ad lattice constant of the materials to those desired. Very few of these II-VI mixed alloys have been grown and investigated. It will be enhanced through several collaborations for additional materials characterization. Simple devices using those heterostructures which posses more promising properties, will also be investigated. ***
