Temperature and Alloy Compositional Dependences of the Energy Gap of Hg1−<i>x</i>Cd<i>x</i>Te

Abstract

The temperature and compositional dependences of the energy gap are determined for the alloy semiconductor mercury-cadmium telluride (Hg1−xCdxTe). The cutoff wavelength was measured on photoconductive and photovoltaic infrared detectors where 0.17&amp;lt;x&amp;lt;0.60 over a temperature range 20&amp;lt;T&amp;lt; 300°K. Spectral response curves are shown to indicate the precision of the method. The temperature and compositional dependences of the energy gap are shown and the empirical expression Eg (eV) =1.59x−0.25+5.233(10−4)T(1−2.08x)+0.327x3is deduced.