The Performance of Hg0.8Cd0.2Te Photodetectors by Using Photo Surface Treatment

The principal aim of this paper is to propose an easy, vapor phase, and reproducible photo surface treatment method to improve the device performance of the Hg0.8Cd0.2Te photoconductive detector. Experimental results, including Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), MIS leakage current, 1/f noise voltage spectrum, 1/fknee frequency, responsivity Rλ, and specific detectivity D* for stacked photo surface treatment and ZnS or CdTe passivation layers are presented. By using this method, we found that there is no accumulation of Hg in the oxide/HgCdTe interface regions. Since the photo chemical vapor native oxidation is a dry oxidation method deposited at a low temperature, it can effectively suppress the Hg enhancement and the Cd depletion effects and thus obtain a high quality interface. We also found that the photo surface treatment in combination with thermally eveporated ZnS or CdTe layer would shift the 1/fknee under 100Hz in an electrical field under 50 V/cm, reduce the noise power spectrum, and achieve a lower surface recombination velocity S of 300 cm/sec as well as a high D* of 3 × 1010 cm [Formula: see text] for blackbody radiation. It was also found that HgCdTe photoconductor passivated with stacked layers shows improved interface properties when compared to the photoconductor passivated with a single passivation layer.

In Situ Spectroscopic Ellipsometry for Monitoring and Control of HgCdTe Heterostructures Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

ABSTRACTA major advantage of vapor phase epitaxial growth techniques is their flexibility to produce Hg1−xCdxTe layers with difFerent compositions from one run to the next, as well as the flexibility to produce compositional heterostructures of Hg1−xCdxTe in one process step. To take full advantage of this flexibility, reliable, automated control must be introduced. To this end, a phase-modulated spectroscopie ellipsometer (SE) has been implemented for use as a contactless wafer state sensor. In this work SE was used to monitor in real-time the stoichiometry of epitaxial Hg1–4CdxTe during growth by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). SE has provided valuable information about the MBE growth process, by revealing even small fluctuations in x (± 0.002). In particular, SE has measured the compositional profiles of both LWIR/MWIR and MWIR/LWIR interfaces. Distinct profiles were revealed for interfaces created by abrupt changes in the CdTe effusion cell set-point and for interfaces created by ramping the cell temperature linearly. Ramping results in a smoothly graded interface, whose thickness may be pre-determined, though typically 2000 Å. An abrupt set-point change results in a sharper transition (∼300 Å) followed by oscillations in composition associated with the settling time of the cell (∼1500 Å). The thickness of a CdTe passivation layer grown on a LWTR layer was determined. The current status of the SE will be reported through other illustrative examples which demonstrate its utility as a diagnostic tool and as a sensor for realtime, feed-back control of the MBE process.