Bulk growth and surface characterization of epitaxy ready cadmium zinc telluride substrates for use in IR imaging applications

Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) is an important compound semiconductor material upon which Mercury Cadmium Telluride (MCT) layers are deposited epitaxially to form structures that are used in high performance detectors covering a wide infrared (IR) spectral band. The epitaxial growth of high quality MCT layers presents many technical challenges and a critical determinant of material performance is the quality of the underlying bulk CZT substrate. CZT itself is a difficult material to manufacture where traditional methods of bulk growth are complex and low yielding, which constrains the supply of commercially available substrates. In this work we report on the epitaxy-ready finishing of Travelling Heather Method (THM) grown Cd0.96Zn0.04Te substrates. The THM method is well established for the growth of high quality CZT crystals used in nuclear, X-ray and spectroscopic imaging applications and in this work we demonstrate the application of this technique to the growth of IR specification CZT substrates with areas of up to 5 cm x 5 cm square. We will discuss the advantages of the THM method over alternative methods of bulk CZT growth where the high yield and material uniformity advantages of this technique will be demonstrated. Chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP) of 4 cm x 4 cm CZT substrates reveals that III-V (InSb/GaSb) like levels of epitaxy-ready surface finishing may be obtained with modified process chemistries. Surface quality assessments will be made by various surface analytical and microscopy techniques from which the suitability of the material for subsequent assessment of quality by epitaxial growth will be ascertained.