Study on Surface Oxidative Characterization of LPE HgCdTe Epilayer by X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy

This report presents a surface pre-treatment method of LPE HgCdTe epilayer to reduce and remove the oxides and contaminants. The surface oxidative characterization of LPE HgCdTe epilayer has been studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). HgCdTe surface exposed by various processing steps has been measured and analyzed, the results show the native oxide film can be removed by the solution of lactic acid in ethylene glycol after etching by bromine in absolute ethyl alcohol. It indicates that the mainly optical and electrical parameters of LPE HgCdTe epilayer have not been changed. It is evident that the pre-treatment before HgCdTe surface passivation affects the passivant/HgCdTe interface properties.