Minority carrier lifetime in LPE Hg1−x Cdx Te

We report measurements on the minority carrier lifetime in n‐type and p‐type LPE Hg1−xCdxTe/CdTe with x∼0.2. For n‐HgCdTe, we have measured lifetimes of 4–7 μs at 77 K for passivated samples. These values are comparable to the results reported for bulk material. For p‐HgCdTe epilayers with thickness ≤20 μm, the measured lifetime is 15–20 ns at 77 K and is suspected to be limited by surface recombination. With excitation through the CdTe substrate, we have attempted to measure the bulk lifetime; preliminary results are reported.