HgCdTe and CdTe(1 1 3)<i>B</i> growth on Si(112)5° off by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

CdTe(1̄ 1̄ 3̄)B epilayers were grown on Si substrates oriented (112)5° off toward the [1̄ 1̄ 1] direction by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). A Zn irradiation process was developed in order to obtain a (1̄ 1̄ 3̄)B face. HgCdTe(1̄ 1̄ 3̄)B epilayers were grown on 20 μm-thick CdTe/Si(112) 5° off, and characterized. These layers have double-crystal x-ray rocking curves with full width at half-maximum as low as 64 arc s, and etch pit densities of 4.4×106 cm−2 and 2.6×105 cm−2 for as-grown and thermal-cycle annealed films, respectively. Photodiodes were also fabricated to demonstrate the capability of large-area MBE-HgCdTe/Si focal-plane arrays.