To prevent characteristics failures caused by the occurrence of a zigzag type junction by a method wherein, in an epitaxial growth layer forming a p-n junction, silicon and tellurium and doped and telluric concentration near the p-n junction is set to a specified value.

In a method for continuously growing a p-n junction in a GaAs or GaAlAs epitaxial layer, in addition to silicon as a first dopant, tellurium is added as a second dopant to form the epitaxial layer on a GaAs substrate. Tellurium concentration near the p-n junction of the GaAs or GaAlAs epitaxial layer is set in a range of 3×1015 cm-3 to 1×1017 cm-3. Tellurium acts an n-type unipolar dopant and silicon which indicates p-type has concentration higher than silicon indicating an n-type near the p-n junction, and the formation of a zigzag type junction is prevented, the satisfactory p-n junction is formed, and the occurrence of element failure is prevented.