A general optical characterization method for determining the composition of Hg1−xCdxTe samples

Abstract

The rate of variation of transmission as a function of frequency or energy exhibits a maximum in the fundamental absorption region of the alloy semiconductor Hg_1−xCd_xTe. The maximum steepness occurs in the tail region of the absorption edge and its frequency can be correlated analytically with the composition. From the experimental measurements of room temperature IR transmission on both bulk grown and epilayers of Hg_1−xCd_xTe, it is shown that an analysis of the transmission curve at (dT_r/dE)_max leads to the determination of composition and compositional uniformity in the given sample.