Investigation of MBE-Growth of Mid-Wave Infrared Hg_1−xCd_xSe

Undoped mid-wave infrared Hg_1−xCd_xSe epitaxial layers have been grown to a nominal thickness of 8–14 μm on GaSb (211)B substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) using constant beam equivalent pressure ratios. The effects of growth temperature from 70°C to 120°C on epilayer quality and its electronic parameters has been examined using x-ray diffraction (XRD) rocking curves, atomic force microscopy, Nomarski optical imaging, photoconductive decay measurements, and variable magnetic field Hall effect analysis. For samples grown at 70°C, the measured values of XRD rocking curve full width at half maximum (FWHM) (116 arcsec), root mean square (RMS) surface roughness (2.7 nm), electron mobility (6.6 × 10⁴ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ at 130 K), minority carrier lifetime (∼ 2 μs at 130 K), and background n-type doping (∼ 3 × 10¹⁶ cm⁻³ at 130 K), indicate device-grade material quality that is significantly superior to that previously published in the open literature. All of these parameters were found to degrade monotonically with increasing growth temperature, although a reasonably wide growth window exists from 70°C to 90°C, within which good quality HgCdSe can be grown via MBE.