Isolation and control of voids and void-hillocks during molecular beam epitaxial growth of HgCdTe

Abstract

Formation of small voids and defect complexes involving small voids during the molecular beam epitaxial growth of mercury cadmium telluride on cadmium zinc telluride was investigated. Some of these defects were demonstrated to form away from the substrate-epi interface. Other defects were demonstrated to close before reaching the top surface without leaving any perturbations on the surface, thus remaining completely hidden. The voids, which formed away from the substrate-epifilm fixed interface, nucleated on defects introduced into the film already grown, leading to the formation of defect complexes, unlike the voids which nucleated at the substrate-epifilm fixed interface. These defect complexes are decorated with high density dislocation nests. The voids which closed before reaching the film surface usually also nucleated slightly away from the film-substrate interface, continued to replicate for a while as the growth progressed, but then relatively rapidly closed off at a significant depth from the film surface. These voids also appeared to form defect complexes with other kinds of defects. Correlations between these materials defects and performance of individual vertically integrated photodiode (VIP) devices were demonstrated, where the relative location of these defects with respect to the junction boundary appears to be particularly important. Elimination or reduction of fluctuations in relative flux magnitudes or substrate temperature, more likely during multi-composition layer growth, yielded films with significantly lower defect concentrations.