Room temperature characterization of Hg1-xCdxTe P-on-n heterostructure photodiodes

Abstract

Measurements of 77K RoA and 300K reverse bias dynamic impedance (RdA) products at one volt reverse bias has been carried out to assess the degree of correlation of this figure of merit. Planar P-on-n heterostructures were grown on near lattice-matched CdZnTe substrates with Hg1-xCdxTe (0.20< x <0.30) by molecular beam epitaxy. These devices were passivated with CdTe and doped with indium and arsenic as n- and p-type dopants, respectively. Current-voltage characteristic of these devices exhibit thermally generated dark currents at small and modest reverse bias. We have observed that RoA values of these long wavelength infrared P-on-n heterostructure photodiodes at 77K correlate with room temperature RdA values. Diode arrays with high room temperature RdA values at one volt reverse bias also have high RoA values at 77K. Similarly, low RdA values at room temperature indicate poor performance at 77K where deviation from diffusion current occurs at reverse bias of 0.2 to 1 volt at room temperature. The results presented here, for a small samples of devices, demonstrate that room temperature measurements of current-voltage characteristics to evaluate Hg1-xCdxTe (0.22< x <0.28) diode performance and array uniformity at lower temperatures can be used. This provides an acceptable criteria for further study at lower temperatures.