MOVPE Growth of Cadmium Mercury Telluride and Applications

Summary

Research into the use of metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) for mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) began in the early 1980s in many centers around the world following the success that the process achieved in the growth of a variety of III/V compounds. This chapter describes the status of MOVPE growth, along with the key factors that need to be considered when using this growth technique. It shows that MOVPE processes can be used to produce high‐quality, large‐area infrared focal plane array devices for many applications. In all epitaxial processes, by definition, growth is controlled by the choice of substrate crystal. MOVPE reactor designs for MCT growth evolved from successful III/V systems and encompassed both vertical and horizontal concept configurations. In addition to the requirements for uniformity control within a run, it is essential to achieve good reproducibility of MCT heterostructure growth over extended time periods.