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Characterization of Dislocations in HgCdTe Heteroepitaxial Layers Using a New Substrate Removal Technique

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Dislocations are known to influence the electrical and optical properties of long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) HgCdTe detectors and have been shown to limit the performance of arrays fabricated on heteroepitaxial substrates. To help better understand dislocations in HgCdTe, a new method for preparing HgCdTe diagnostic epitaxial single-crystal samples by chemically removing the supporting CdZnTe substrate has been developed. Using this new sample preparation technique, the behavior of misfit and threading dislocations in HgCdTe epitaxial layers has been investigated by using a defect etch to reveal the dislocations present in the thin HgCdTe films. In most cases etch pits on the surface of the film are spatially correlated with etch pits on the bottom of the HgCdTe film. The small displacements of the related etch pits were used to obtain crystallographic information concerning the paths followed by threading dislocations on allowed slip planes in the HgCdTe crystal. In addition, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is used to obtain more specific information regarding the Burgers vector of the dislocation. While this new sample preparation technique is useful for studying dislocations in HgCdTe epitaxial layers, it can also be used to study stress from ohmic contacts and passivation layers. The technique can be used for both liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE)- and molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE)-grown HgCdTe on CdZnTe substrates.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the U.S. Army for supporting this work through Contracts W15P7T-06-C-M002 and W15P7T-06-C-M006 and technical monitor Dr. Justin Markunas. Contributions from Mr. Fazal Huseni, BAE Systems and Mr. John Knowles, Microvision Laboratories are also acknowledged. The Evans Analytical Group is acknowledged for FIB and TEM work. Dr. Michael Carmody and EPIR are thanked for donating MBE samples. Professor Soumendra Basu of Boston University is acknowledged for helping with indexing of electron diffraction patterns.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Photronix Inc., 35 Sandybrook Road, Burlington, MA, 01803, USA

    P. Lamarre & F. Smith

  2. BAE Systems, 2 Forbes Road, Lexington, MA, 02421, USA

    P. Lamarre, C. Fulk, P. LoVecchio, M. B. Reine, T. Parodos, J. Marciniec & S. P. Tobin

  3. Boston University, 8 Saint Mary’s Street, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    D. D’Orsogna & E. Bellotti

  4. U.S. Army RDECOM CERDEC NVESD, Ft. Belvoir, VA, 22060, USA

    J. Markunas

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  1. P. Lamarre
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  2. C. Fulk
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  3. D. D’Orsogna
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  4. E. Bellotti
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  5. F. Smith
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  6. P. LoVecchio
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  7. M. B. Reine
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  8. T. Parodos
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  9. J. Marciniec
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  10. S. P. Tobin
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  11. J. Markunas
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Correspondence to P. Lamarre.

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Lamarre, P., Fulk, C., D’Orsogna, D. et al. Characterization of Dislocations in HgCdTe Heteroepitaxial Layers Using a New Substrate Removal Technique. J. Electron. Mater. 38, 1746–1754 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-009-0771-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-009-0771-x

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