Impurity levels and bandedge electronic structure in as-grown arsenic-doped HgCdTe by infrared photoreflectance spectroscopy

The nature of bandedge electronic structure represents a theoretically interesting and technologically important question in arsenic-doped narrow-gap HgCdTe. In this study, temperature-dependent 11–290 K photoreflectance PR measurements were carried out in midinfrared spectral region on three as-grown arsenic As -doped narrow-gap Hg1−xCdxTe x=0.317, 0.287, and 0.310, respectively samples prepared by molecularbeam epitaxy. Low-energy photomodulated Fabry-Perot interference FPI and high-energy Franz-Keldysh oscillation FKO were analyzed and bandedge PR features were discriminated. Curve fittings of the bandedge PR features were performed, band-gap and below-gap PR processes were identified, and critical energies were determined. While no obvious FPI and FKO could be identified for the sample with a doping level of about 1018 cm−3, they were strong for the doping levels of about 1016–1017 cm−3, and got enhanced with temperature. Detailed analyses indicated that the below-gap PR features are linked to donor-acceptor, conduction-bandacceptor, and donor-valence-band transitions. The average energy levels of the donor and acceptor states were evaluated to be about 17 1 meV and 27 3 meV below conduction-band minimum, and 14 1 meV above valence-band maximum at 77 K, and the origins were assigned to AsHg, TeHg, and VHg, respectively. The effect of possible deep-level impurities were also discussed, and a value of about 69 meV above the valence-band maximum was assumed preliminarily for the second level of VHg acceptor VHg II and 42 meV below the conduction-band minimum for As tetramer AsHg-Asi dimmer 3. The evolution of PR critical energies with temperature was compared with an empirical formula for HgCdTe band-gap energy, and the implication of “effective band gap” was evidenced for the empirical formula. Finally, a schematic diagram was drawn for the bandedge electronic structure of the as-grown As-doped narrow-gap HgCdTe epilayers.