Electrical properties of UV photochemically treated CdTe

Abstract

Single crystal CdTe was grown using the vapour phase technique. The dice were etched using a photochemical method in which the samples were illuminated during the etching process. Laser pulses of various intensities were used as an illumination source during the etching of the CdTe substrate. A pulse excimer laser capable of producing 17 ns pulses of 308 nm wavelength with varuing intensities between 0–35 mW cm −2 was used. Schottky barriers were made by vacuum evaporation of gold onto the CdTe single crystal substrate. The behaviour of the AuCdTe devices was studied as a function of the intensity of the laser beam used during the etching of CdTe substrate by principle electrical methods such as capacitance-voltage and current-voltage analysis. The photochemical technique was found to produce a significant change in the electrical properties, such as the barrier height, carrier concentration, ideality factor, and forward-bias threshold of the AuCdTe Schottky diode.