Evaluation of HgCdTe on GaAs Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy for High-Operating-Temperature Infrared Detector Applications

摘要

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of HgCdTe (MCT) on alternative substrates enables production of both cheaper and more versatile (third-generation) infrared (IR) detectors. After rapid progress in the development of MBE-grown MCT on GaAs in recent years, the question of whether the considerable benefits of this material system are also applicable to high-operating-temperature (HOT) applications demands attention. In this paper, we present a mid-wavelength-IR 640 × 512 pixel, 15-μm-pitch focal-plane array with operability of 99.71% at operating temperature of 120 K and low dark current density. In the second part of the paper, MBE growth of short-wavelength IR material with Cd fraction of up to 0.8 is investigated as the basis for future evaluation of the material for low-light-level imaging HOT applications.