Faraday rotation analysis of HgCdTe

Faraday rotation was measured in liquid-phase epitaxial (LPE) Hg1-xCdxTe (x approximately=0.22) at CO2 laser photon energies over the temperature range of 77 K to 300 K for magnetic fields up to 16 kG. The authors find that the Faraday rotation is composed of free-carrier, interband and spin-induced contributions. At 77 K, the interband and spin contributions dominate, resulting in large observed Faraday rotation, i.e. of the order of 102 deg cm-1 kG-1. All three contributions are needed to interpret the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the Faraday rotation in the samples. Resonant behaviour observed in the rotation angle is successfully described by impurity-to-band magneto-optical absorption. They conclude that Faraday rotation could serve as a viable technique for the non-contact measurement of carrier concentration in Hg1-xCdxTe.