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A detailed consideration of the discrete mobility-spectrum analysis (DMSA) method and its application to transport studies in HgCdTe is given. First, a brief review of the methods of the analysis of field dependences of the Hall coefficient and conductivity in HgCdTe-based structures with a multi-carrier mobility spectrum is presented. The advantages and drawbacks of these methods, which include original mobility-spectrum analysis by Beck and Anderson, multi-carrier fitting and iterative approach by Dziuba and Górska, and the later developments of these techniques, are considered. The properties of the envelope of the mobility spectrum are analyzed, and the specifics of DMSA are presented. Analysis of some magnetic-field B dependences of conductivity tensor components σxx(B) and σxy(B) presented in the literature is performed with DMSA, and the results are compared to those obtained with other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defect structure of arsenic-implanted Hg1-xCdxTe films (x=0.23–0.30) grown with molecular-beam epitaxy on Si substrates was investigated with the use of optical methods and by studying the electrical properties of the films. The structural perfection of the films remained higher after implantation with more energetic arsenic ions (350 keV vs 190 keV). 100%-activation of implanted ions as a result of post-implantation annealing was achieved, as well as the effective removal of radiation-induced donor defects. In some samples, however, activation of acceptor-like defects not related to mercury vacancies as a result of annealing was observed, possibly related to the effect of the substrate.

The Hall-effect (with mobility spectrum analysis) and capacitance measurements were combined with transmission electron microscopy for the study of molecular-beam epitaxy-grown n-type Hg1-xCdxTe (x = 0.22) films subjected to various operations used in the fabrication of p+-n photodiode structures. The operations included arsenic ion implantation, activation annealing and extra annealings aimed at investigation of the details of the p+-n junction formation. A detailed characterization of p+-type layers formed by the implantation was done. A high degree of arsenic activation by activation annealing was demonstrated, along with the annihilation of implantation-induced extended (dislocation loops) and quasi-point defects, and the disappearance of electrically active centres associated with them. The annealing was also shown to cause the activation of residual acceptors, changing the degree of electrical compensation in the n-'base' of some of the p+-n structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radiation damage and its transformation under annealing were studied with bright-field and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy for arsenic-implanted HgCdTe films with graded-gap surface layers. In addition to typical highly defective layers in as-implanted material, a 50 nm-thick sub-surface layer with very low defect density was observed. The main defects in other layers after implantation were dislocation loops, yet after arsenic activation annealing, the dominating defects were single dislocations. Transport (from depth to surface), transformation and annihilation of radiation-induced defects were observed as a result of annealing, with the depth with the maximum defect density decreasing from 110 to 40 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis is performed of the contemporary views on the effect of ion etching (ion-beam milling and reactive ion etching) on physical properties of HgCdTe and on the mechanisms of the processes responsible for modification of these properties under the etching. Possibilities are discussed that ion etching opens for defect studies in HgCdTe, including detecting electrically neutral tellurium nanocomplexes, determining background donor concentration in the material of various origins, and understanding the mechanism of arsenic incorporation in molecular-beam epitaxy-grown films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]