Development of optically immersed, near-room-temperature HgCdTe photovoltaic detectors

Optically immersed HgCdTe photovoltaic detectors in the 2.5 to 3.2 μm wavelength region operating at near room temperatures have been developed based on HgCdTe graded structure materials grown by opened tube isothermal vapor phase epitaxy (ISOVPE) method on lattice matched CdZnTe substrate. Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurement combined with continuous step wet etching was applied to adjust the cutoff wavelength. The devices were designed and fabricated by traditional n-on-p planar junction process. Optical immersion of micro-lenses by CdZnTe substrate was used to improve the performance of the devices and the hyper-hemispherical micro-lens with a diameter of 1.5mm was made by single point diamond turning method. The optical response area was tested by laser beam induced current (LBIC) scanning measurement, and the result showed that the devices with hyper-hemispherical immersion micro-lens could get a 1mm×1mm response area as designed. The current-voltage characteristic of the devices were measured, and all the devices showed a little increase in the values of zero biased resistance, which was due to a decreased background radiation acceptance angle caused by a hyper-hemispherical structure. The photo response signal and dark noise were also measured before and after the micro-lens fabrication. The signal showed an increase by 20-30 times due to the enlarged photo response area, and the dark noise showed a little decrease which was also due to a limited background radiation acceptance angle. As a result, a multiple factor of four in detectivity enhancement could be achieved by the adoption of hyper-hemispherical immersion micro-lens structures.