Au-Doped HgCdTe Infrared Material and Device Technology

The minority carrier lifetime of p-type HgCdTe materials can be improved significantly by using Au atoms instead of Hg vacancies, which have been considered as deep-level energy recombination centers; consequently, the dark current of n-on-p HgCdTe devices reduced and performance improved. Further, Au doping is helpful for developing high-performance n-on-p LWIR/VLWIR and high operating temperature (HOT) MWIR HgCdTe infrared detectors with high resolution and high sensitivity. In this paper, Au-doped HgCdTe IR material and device technologies were reviewed. Critical processes and the effect of Au doping on the device properties were discussed as well.