Low dislocation density MBE process for CdTe-on-GaSb as an alternative substrate for HgCdTe growth

This work demonstrates a low dislocation density molecular beam epitaxial process (average etch pit density ∼1.4 × 105 cm−2) for the growth of CdTe buffer layers on GaSb (211)B alternative substrates for subsequent growth of HgCdTe infrared materials. This dislocation density is much lower than that for CdTe layers grown on other alternative substrates (mid-106 to low-107 cm−2 range for Si, Ge and GaAs), is well below the critical level required for fabricating high performance long-wave infrared HgCdTe detectors (5 × 105 cm−2), and is close to that achieved on lattice-matched CdZnTe substrates (mid-104 to low-105 cm−2 range). The low dislocation density is achieved by inserting a ZnTe/CdTe-based transitional buffer layer between the GaSb substrate and the CdTe buffer layer. The main purpose of this transitional buffer layer is to better accommodate the 6.1% lattice mismatch between the GaSb substrate and the CdTe epitaxial layer, which is evidenced by X-ray diffraction reciprocal space mapping. Additional benefits of this transitional buffer layer include possible blocking/filtering of misfit dislocation propagation, as well as gettering of defects and impurities. More importantly, an even lower dislocation density can be expected by increasing the thickness of the CdTe epitaxial layer and implementing a thermal annealing cycle for more efficient gettering. The results of this study indicate the great potential of GaSb as an alternative substrate for growing next generation HgCdTe infrared materials to meet the focal plane array requirements of higher device yield, lower cost and larger array format size.