Pre-Cracking and Plasma Enhanced Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition Processes for Epitaxial Hg1−xCdxTe and HgTe-CdTe Superlattice Growth

ABSTRACTTwo low temperature metalorganic chemical vapor deposition growth techniques, the pre-cracking method and the plasma enhanced method, will be discussed. The pre-cracking technique enables one to grow high quality epitaxial Hg1−xCdxTe on CdTe or CdZnTe substrates at temperatures around 200–250°C. HgTe-CdTe superlattices with sharp interfaces have also been fabricated. Furthermore, for the first time, we have demonstrated that ternary Hg1−xCdTe compounds and HgTe-CdTe superlattices can be successfully grown by the plasma enhanced process at temperatures as low as 135 to 150°C. Material properties such as surface morphology, infrared transmission, Hall mobility, and interface sharpness will be presented.