M. Carmody

Impact of Tellurium Precipitates in CdZnTe Substrates on MBE HgCdTe Deposition

State-of-the-art (112)B CdZnTe substrates were examined for near-surface tellurium precipitate-related defects. The Te precipitate density was observed to be fairly uniform throughout the bulk of the wafer, including the near-surface region. After a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) preparation etch, exposed Te precipitates, small pits, and bumps on the (112)B surface of the CdZnTe wafer were observed. From near-infrared and dark field microscopy, the bumps and small pits on the CdZnTe surface are associated with strings of Te precipitates. Raised bumps are Te precipitates near the surface of the (112)B CdZnTe where the MBE preparation etch has not yet exposed the Te precipitate(s). An exposed Te precipitate sticking above the etched CdZnTe surface plane occurs when the MBE preparation etch rapidly undercuts a Te precipitate. Shallow surface pits are formed when the Te precipitate is completely undercut from the surrounding (112)B surface plane. The Te precipitate that was previously located at the center of the pit is liberated by the MBE preparation etch process.

Molecular beam epitaxy grown long wavelength infrared HgCdTe on compliant Si substrates

At the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), a new ternary semiconductor system CdSexTe1-x/Si(211) is being investigated as an alternative substrate to bulk-grown CdZnTe substrates for HgCdTe growth by molecular beam epitaxy. Under optimized conditions, best layers show surface defect density less than 400 cm-2 and full width at half maximum of X-ray double crystal rocking curve as low as 100 arc-sec with excellent uniformity over 3 inch area. LW-HgCdTe layers on these compliant substrates exhibit comparable electrical properties to those grown on bulk CZT substrates. Photovoltaic devices fabricated on these LWIR material shows diffusion limited performance at 78K indicating high quality material. Measured RoA at 78K on λco = 10 μm material is on the order of 340 Ω-cm2. In addition to single devices, we have fabricated 256x256 2-D arrays with 40 μm pixel pitch on LW-HgCdTe grown on Si compliant substrates. Data shows excellent QE operability of 99% at 78K under a tactical background flux of 6.7x1015 ph/cm2sec. Most probable dark current at the peak distribution is 5.5 x 109 e-/sec and is very much consistent with the measured RoA values from single devices. Initial results indicate NETD of 33 mK for a cut-off wavelength of 10 μm with 40 micron pixels size. This work demonstrates CdSexTe1-x/Si(211) substrates provides a potential road map to more affordable, robust 3rd generation FPAs.