Interdiffusion behavior of Hg in HgTe/CdTe superlattices grown on Cd0.96Zn0.04 Te (211)B substrates by molecular beam epitaxy

Double-crystal x-ray rocking curve (DCRC) and secondary-ion mass-spectroscopy (SIMS) measurements have been performed to investigate the effect of rapid thermal annealing on the interdiffusion behavior of Hg in HgTe/CdTe superlattices grown on Cd_0.96Zn_0.04Te (211)B substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The sharp satellite peaks of the DCRC measurements on a 100-period HgTe/CdTe (100Å/100Å) superlattice show a periodic arrangement of the superlattice with high-quality interfaces. The negative direction of the entropy change obtained from the diffusion coefficients as a function of the reciprocal of the temperature after RTA indicates that the Hg diffusion for the annealed HgTe/CdTe superlattice is caused by an interstitial mechanism. The Cd and the Hg concentration profiles near the annealed HgTe/CdTe superlattice interfaces, as measured by SIMS, show a nonlinear behavior for Hg, originating from the interstitial diffusion mechanism of the Hg composition. These results indicate that a nonlinear interdiffusion behavior is dominant for HgTe/CdTe superlattices annealed at 190°C and that the rectangular shape of HgTe/CdTe superlattices may change to a parabolic shape because of the intermixing of Hg and Cd due to the thermal treatment.     

分子束外延CdTe（211）B／Si复合衬底材料

报道了用MBE的方法，在3英寸Si衬底上制备ZnTe／CdTe（211）B复合衬底材料的初步研究结果，该研究结果将能够直接应用于大面积Si基HgCdTe IRFPA材料的生长．经过Si（211）衬底低温表面处理、ZnTe低温成核、高温退火、高温ZnTe、CdTe层的生长研究，用MBE方法成功地获得了3英寸Si基ZnTe／CdTe（211）B复合衬底材料．CdTe厚度大于10μm，XRD FWHM平均值为120arc sec，最好达到100arc sec，无（133）孪晶和其他多晶晶向．     

p-type HgTe/CdTe superlattices for very-long wavelength infrared detectors

HgTe/CdTe superlattices (SL) have been studied for applications involving the detection of very-long wavelength infrared (VLWIR) detectors. In this study, p-type HgTe/CdTe SLs were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). As-grown arsenic δ-doped HgTe/CdTe SLs and undoped HgTe/CdTe SLs were characterized before and after annealing under different conditions using XRD, temperature-dependent Hall-effect measurements, SIMS, and TEM. Incorporated arsenic atoms in a HgTe/CdTe SL were electrically activated without the typical thermal annealing of alloy HgCdTe materials.     

CdTe and HgTe surface growth kinetics for molecular and metalorganic molecular beam epitaxy

The surface growth kinetics of CdTe and HgTe have been investigated during molecular and metalorganic molecular beam epitaxy. The surface growth kinetics was studied through in-situ measurements of the growth rate as a function of flux ratio and substrate temperature on the (001), (111)B, and (211)B CdTe surface orientations. For the (001) and (111)B CdTe growth kinetics, the existence of low binding energy surface precursor sites was proposed for both molecular and atomic growth species before lattice incorporation. Intensity oscillations were observed during HgTe growth on misoriented (111)B surfaces and during CdTe growth on the (211)B orientation. The (211)B surface reconstructions displayed both vicinal and singular surface characteristics, depending on the growth flux ratio.     

Inter-layer subb and mixing in MBE-grown HgTe/CdTe superlattices

We report transport results for molecular beam epitaxially grown HgTe/CdTe superlattices (SLs) with CdTe barrier thickness of L_b systematically varied from 100Å down to 20Å, and demonstrate the increasing intersubband mixing between adjacent layers with decreasing L_b. Magnetotransport data measured at 1.5K and for B up to 10T show monotonously varying features with L_b, implying a dimensional change from 2D to quasi-3D. As L_b decreases, the quantum Hall plateaus become weaker and the number of effective 2D channels are decreased, which indicates increasing growth-direction energy dispersion. This enhanced interlayer subband coupling with decreasing L_b is further confirmed by the angle-dependence of SdH oscillations. For L_b = 20Å, all of 2D-related transport behavior are washed out. A quantitative analysis with calculated subband energy dispersion relations demonstrates the close interplay between superlattice barrier thickness and the strength of the intersubband mixing. These transport results are directly related to successful control of the growth-axis carrier effective mass and will contribute to the development of high-performance HgTe/CdTe SL-based IR photo-voltaic devices and lasers, in which tunneling noise due to diffusion currents can be considerably reduced.     

Metalorganic Vapor-Phase Epitaxial Growth of (211)B CdTe on (211) Si Using Ge Interfacial Layer

We have achieved metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxial growth of (211)B CdTe on Si without the requirement of a pregrowth high-temperature oxide desorption step. This was achieved by growing a thin Ge film on the starting (211) Si substrates. To get (211)B CdTe orientation, the Ge surface was exposed to As prior to the start of CdTe growth. A thin ZnTe interlayer between Ge and CdTe has been shown to improve the CdTe surface morphology.     

Comparison of normal and inverted band structure HgTe/CdTe superlattices for very long wavelength infrared detectors

The type III band alignment of HgTe/CdTe superlattices leads to the interesting possibility of achieving very long wavelength infrared (VLWIR) (15 μm and longer) cutoff wavelengths with either normal (HgTe layer thickness less than about 70 ? for CdTe layer thickness of 50 ?) or inverted (HgTe thickness greater than about 70 ?) band structures. The inverted band structure superlattices promise even greater cutoff wavelength control than the normal band structure ones. However, the electronic band gaps of inverted band structure superlattices are substantially less than their optical band gaps, leading to large thermal carrier concentrations even at temperature as low as 40 K. These high carrier concentrations in turn give rise to more rapid Auger recombination than normal band structure superlattices with the same cutoff wavelengths. We conclude that the highest performance is expected from VLWIR HgTe/CdTe superlattice-based detectors with normal band structure absorber layers.     

Band gap uniformity and layer stability of HgTe-CdTe superlattices grown by photon-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Two material properties important to the application of HgTe/CdTe superlattices for device fabrication are band gap uniformity and thermal stability. In this paper, we present the results of an infrared photoluminescence study of (211)B HgTe/CdTe superlattices grown by photon-assisted molecular beam epitaxy which show that cut-off wavelength uniformity can be controlled to a level commensurate with the demands of advanced infrared detector fabrication. Infrared photoluminescence and transmission electron microscopy were also employed to demonstrate that (211)B HgTe/CdTe superlattices are less prone to interdiffusion than previously believed.     

Improved CdTe layers on GaAs and Si using atomic layer epitaxy

In this paper, we report on the atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) of CdTe on GaAs and Si by the organometallic vapor phase epitaxial process at atmospheric pressure. Self-limiting growth at one monolayer was obtained over the temperature range from 250°C to 320°C, under a wide range of reactant pressure conditions. A study of growth mechanism indicates that DMCd decomposes into Cd on the surface and the Te precursors react catalytically on the Cd covered surface. We have used this ALE grown layer to improve the crystal quality and the morphology of conventionally grown CdTe on GaAs. Improvement in the crystal quality was also observed when ALE CdTe nucleation was carried out on Si pretreated with DETe at 420°C. Atomic layer epitaxy grown ZnTe was used to obtain (100) oriented CdTe on (100) silicon.     

Microstructural and optical characterization of CdTe(211)B/ZnTe/Si(211) grown by molecular beam epitaxy

CdTe layers have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on 3 inch nominal Si(211) under various conditions to study the effect of growth parameters on the structural quality. The microstructure of several samples was investigated by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The orientation of the CdTe layers was affected strongly by the ZnTe buffer deposition temperature. Both single domain CdTe(133)B and CdTe(211)B were obtained by selective growth of ZnTe buffer layers at different temperatures. We demonstrated that thin ZnTe buffer layers (<2 nm) are sufficient to maintain the (211) orientation. CdTe deposited at ∼300°C grows with its normal lattice parameter from the onset of growth, demonstrating the effective strain accommodation of the buffer layer. The low tilt angle (<1°) between CdTe[211] and Si[211] indicates that high miscut Si(211) substrates are unnecessary. From low temperature photoluminescence, it is shown that Cd-substituted Li is the main residual impurity in the CdTe layer. In addition, deep emission bands are attributed to the presence of As_Te and Ag_Cd acceptors. There is no evidence that copper plays a role in the impurity contamination of the samples.     

States confined in the barriers of type-III HgTe/CdTe superlattices

We present a theoretical study of states quasi-localized in CdTe barriers of HgTe/CdTe superlattices. We show that the quasi-localization of both electrons and holes will lead to strong Coulomb interaction, and thus to the formation of excitons. It is further demonstrated that such quasi-localized states, including excitons, exhibit confinement effect similar to those of loclaized states in quantum wells.     

HgTe/HgCdTe superlattices grown on CdTe/Si by molecular beam epitaxy for infrared detection

High-quality HgTe/CdTe superlattices (SLs) and device structures incorporating them were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on CdTe/Si substrates. In-situ techniques, such as reflection, high-energy electron diffraction and spectroscopic ellipsometry, were extensively used to rigorously control the growth parameters. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of x-ray double-crystal rocking curves (DCRCs) were 100–150 arcsec, comparable to those of HgCdTe alloys grown on the same type of substrates. The room-temperature Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum exhibits two-dimensional features characteristic of SLs. Trial devices in a p⁺-n⁻-n⁺ format were fabricated by diffusing gold in order to further evaluate the HgTe/CdTe SL performance. Gold diffusion was chosen to fabricate photovoltaic junctions in order to preserve the structural integrity of the SLs during the device processing. Though no attempt was made in the current study to optimize the junction properties by Au diffusion, this method has proven to be very useful for rapid preliminary evaluation. The measured spectral-response and detectivity data indicate the possibility to fabricate photovoltaic devices on an HgTe/CdTe SL, although further work is needed to optimize the p-n junction fabrication.     

3英寸CdTe/Si复合衬底外延技术研究

报道了采用分子束外延法,在3 in硅衬底上通过As钝化、ZnTe缓冲层生长、CdTe生长、周期性退火等工艺进行CdTe/Si复合衬底制备技术研究情况,采用光学显微镜、X射线高分辨衍射仪、原子力显微镜、红外傅里叶光谱仪和湿化学腐蚀等手段对碲化镉薄膜进行了表征,测试分析结果表明碲化镉薄膜的晶向得到了较好的控制,孪晶得到了抑...     

Interband magneto-absorption in narrow-gap HgTe/CdTe superlattice structures

The use of a magnetic field for interband absorption experiments in the midinfrared regime can reveal the electronic band structure of HgTe/CdTe superlattices. In high-quality samples pronounced magnetic field-induced absorption peaks are observed in the transmission spectra due to hole to electron Landau level transitions. By extrapolating the excitation energies for such transitions to B = 0, gap energies between several hole and electron subbands can be determined accurately. In addition, we show that interband magnetoabsorption provides a sensitive feedback for growth of quantum structures.     

Understanding the Evolution of CdTe Buffer Layer Surfaces on ZnTe/Si(211) and GaAs(211)B During Cyclic Annealing

We present the results of a detailed study of the changes that occur on CdTe buffer layer surfaces grown on ZnTe/Si(211) and GaAs(211)B during the routine thermal cyclic annealing (TCA) process. Observations indicate that CdTe buffer layer surfaces are Te saturated when the TCA is performed under Te overpressure. In the absence of Te flux during the TCA step, the CdTe surface loses CdTe congruently and the typical CdTe nanowires show the presence of nodules on their surfaces. The observed changes in reflection high-energy electron diffraction patterns during TCA are explained in terms of surface chemistry and topography observations. Overall, the Te overpressure is necessary to maintain a smoother and pristine surface to continue the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth.     

Atomic layer epitaxy of CdTe-ZnTe and CdTe-MnTe Superlattices

CdTe-ZnTe superlattices (SLs) with a period ranging from 13 to 38Å have been grown by atomic layer epitaxy (ALE) on (001) GaAs-substrates. In a substrate temperature range between 270 and 290°C, the growth rate for both CdTe and ZnTe regulated itself to exactly 0.5 monolayers per reaction cycle, allowing the growth of very precisely tailored structures. For lower substrate temperatures, the growth rate raised to approximately 0.8 monolayers per cycle, but did not reach one monolayer per cycle before ZnTe started to grow polycrystalline. Using the ALE growth parameters for CdTe, SLs of CdTe and metastable cubic MnTe were prepared. The superlattices were characterized by high resolution x-ray diffraction and photoluminescence. A comparision of x-ray data and computer simulations, based on the dynamical theory of x-ray diffraction, show that the SLs exhibit excellent period constancy and very abrupt interfaces.     

Chemical Interaction of CdTe and CdZnTe with Aqueous Solutions of H2O2-HI-Tartaric Acid

An iodine-based etching system, H₂O₂-HI-tartaric acid, was tested on CdTe samples with (110), (100), (111)A, and (111)B orientations. The etching rate of CdTe was shown to depend on the sample orientation, ratio of etchant composition components, temperature, and rotation speed of the disc. A study of the chemical composition and structure of the (211)B Cd_1−x Zn _x Te surfaces etched under different conditions was carried out. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements showed that a nearly stoichiometric surface was achieved after heating of the etched surface in vacuum. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) measurements revealed a very good single-crystalline surface layer in samples etched with HI-based solutions as compared with bromine-methanol treatment.     

Selective Growth of CdTe on Si(211): First-Principle Calculations

The adsorption of CdTe layers on clean and As-passivated Si(211) substrates has been simulated by first-principle calculations in this study. Based on the simulation results, we theoretically show the important roles of the As₄ passivation during the epitaxial growth. Arsenic can saturate part of the dangling bonds and weaken the surface states. The partial passivation finally induces the B-face polarity selection automatically. This conclusion can provide further explanations for the successful growth of large area high-quality CdTe(211)B layers on the Si(211) substrates.     

Hydrogen transport vapor phase epitaxy of CdTe on hybrid substrates for x-ray detector applications

The growth of thick CdTe epitaxial layers by the hydrogen transport vapor phase epitaxy (H₂T-VPE) method is reported for the first time. The thermodynamics of the H₂ transport method of CdTe is analyzed to determine the equilibrium partial pressures of the molecular species in the vapor and its supersaturation as a function of growth conditions. (100)-oriented CdTe epilayers are successfully grown by H₂T-VPE on hybrid ZnTe/GaAs(100) substrates prepared by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. Growth rates up to 10 μm/h are obtained at temperatures ∼760°C and with the CdTe source temperature at 827°C. The achievement of even higher growth rates can be foreseen by using the present method under slightly different conditions; several hundreds micron thick CdTe layers can be thus grown by the H₂T-VPE. CdTe samples have mirror-like, nearly featureless surfaces. Also, CdTe epilayers have shown a medium-to-high resistivity at room temperature, possibly as a result of compensation by donor impurities diffusing from GaAs. Still the growth of highly resistive layers by in-situ chlorine doping during the H₂T-VPE growth is possible. In summary, H₂T-VPE is a potential alternative to traditional melt- and vapor-growth methods for the synthesis of detector-grade CdTe for application to the 1–100 keV x-ray energy range.     

Chemical Etching of CdTe in Aqueous Solutions of H<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>2</Subscript>-HI-Citric Acid

An iodine-based etching system, H₂O₂-HI-citric acid, has been developed and tested on CdTe samples with orientations (111)A, (111)B, (110), and (100). The etching velocity of CdTe was shown to depend on sample orientation and other etching conditions. The surface roughness was comparable with that of the surfaces after Br-methanol treatment. A comparative study of the chemical composition of the (211)B CdZnTe surfaces etched under different conditions was performed. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements showed that all treated surfaces of CdZnTe samples are enriched with Te. The HI-based treatment seems to be more acceptable than the Br-methanol treatment in terms of elimination of Te oxides from the surface, however.