Realization of very long wavelength infrared photovoltaic detector arrays on mercury cadmium telluride epitaxial layers grown on Si substrates
This paper proposes a development of n-on-p structures for realizing very long wavelength infrared (VLWIR) detector arrays on mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) epitaxial layers grown on Si substrates. It is shown from a comparative study of zero-bias resistance-area product (R0A) of diodes in n-on-p and p-on-n configurations that the n-on-p structure has promising potential to control contribution of dislocations, without actually reducing dislocation density below the current level (mid-106 cm−2) of HgCdTe/Si material technology. The resulting gain will be in terms of both higher numerical magnitudes of R0A and its reduced scatter.