High Performance of SWIR HgCdTe Photovoltaic Detector Passivated by ZnS

Abstract

Short wave infrared (SWIR) photovoltaic devices have been fabricated from metal organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) grown n- on p- HgCdTe films on GaAs substrates. The MOVPE grown films were processed into mesa type discrete devices with wet chemical etching employed for meas delineation and ZnS surface passivatlon. ZnS was thermally evaporated from effusion cell in an ultra high vacuum (UHV) chamber. The main features of the ZnS deposited from effusion cell in UHV chamber are low fixed surface charge density, and small hysteresis. It was found that a negative flat band voltage with -0.6 V has been obtained for Metal Insulator Semiconductor (MIS) capacitor which was evaporated at $910^{\circ}C$ for 90 min. Current-Voltage (I-V) and temperature dependence of the I-V characteristics were measured in the temperature range 80 - 300 K. The Zero bias dynamic resistance-area product ($R_{0}A$) was about $7500{\Omega}-cm^{2}$ at room temperature. The physical mechanisms that dominate dark current properties in the HgCdTe photodiodes are examined by the dependence of the $R_{0}A$ product upon reciprocal temperature. From theoretical considerations and known current expressions for thermal and tunnelling process, the device is shown to be diffusion limited up to 180 K and g-r limited at temperature below this.