Fundamental materials studies of undoped, In-doped, and As-doped Hg_1−xCd_xTe

Abstract

Variable magnetic-field Hall and transient photoconductance-lifetime measurements were performed on a series of undoped, In-doped, and As-doped HgCdTe samples grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Use of quantitative mobility-spectrum analysis (QMSA) combined with multiple carrier-fitting (MCF) techniques indicates that the majority of samples contain an interfacial n-type layer that significantly influences the interpretation of the electrical measurements. This n-type layer completely masks the high-quality electrical properties of undoped or low n-type In-doped HgCdTe, as well as complicating the interpretation of activation in As-doped p-type HgCdTe. Introduction of an intentional n-type background, typically created through doping with In to “recover” high mobility, is actually shown to increase the “bulk” layer conductivity to a level comparable to the interface layer conductivity. Photoconductance-lifetime measurements suggest that In-doping may introduce Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination centers. Variable-field Hall analysis is shown to be essential for characterizing p-type material. Photoconductance-lifetime measurements suggest that trapping states may be introduced during the incorporation and activation of As. Two distinctly different types of temperature dependencies were observed for the lifetimes of As-doped samples.