BULLETIN of the

POLISH ACADEMY of SCIENCES

TECHNICAL SCIENCES

BULLETIN of the POLISH ACADEMY of SCIENCES: TECHNICAL SCIENCES
Volume 53, Issue 2, June 2005
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Aims&Scope, Subscription Editors Authors' guide Vol 53-2 mirror: http://fluid.ippt.gov.pl/~bulletin/

  
pp 139 - 149
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Growth of MOCVD HgCdTe heterostructures for uncooled infrared photodetectors

A. PIOTROWSKI, P. MADEJCZYK, W. GAWRON, K. KLOS, J. PAWLUCZYK, M. GRUDZIEN, J. PIOTROWSKI and A. ROGALSKI
 
In the paper recent progress at VIGO/MUT (Military University of Technology) MOCVD Laboratory in the growth of Hg1-xCdxTe (HgCdTe) multilayer heterostructures on GaAs/CdTe substrates is presented. The optimum conditions for the growth of single layers and complex multilayer heterostructures have been established. One of the crucial stages of HgCdTe epitaxy is CdTe nucleation on GaAs substrate. Successful composite substrates have been obtained with suitable substrate preparation, liner and susceptor treatment, proper control of background fluxes and appropriate nucleation conditions. The other critical stage is the interdiused multilayer process (IMP). The growth of device-quality HgCdTe heterostructures requires complete homogenization of CdTe-HgTe pairs preserving at the same time suitable sharpness of composition and doping profiles. This requires for IMP pairs to be very thin and grown in a short time. 

Arsenic and iodine have been used for acceptor and donor doping. Suitable growth conditions and post growth anneal is essential for stable and reproducible doping. In situ anneal seems to be sufficient for iodine doping at any required level. In contrast, efficient As doping with near 100% activation requires ex situ anneal at near saturated mercury vapours. As a result we are able to grow multilayer fully doped (100) and (111) heterostructures for various infrared devices including photoconductors, photoelectromagnetic and photovoltaic detectors. The present generation of uncooled long wavelength infrared devices is based on multijunction photovoltaic devices. The technology steps in fabrication of devices are described. It is shown that near-BLIP performance is possible to achieve at 230 K with optical immersion. These devices are especially promising as 7.8–9.5 um  detectors, indicating the potential for achieving detectivities above 109 cmHz1/2/W.

 
Keywords:

MOCVD growth, HgCdTe ternary alloy, room temperature infrared photodetectors

 
 
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