A Novel Metal-Rich Anneal for In Vacuo Passivation of High-Aspect-Ratio Mercury Cadmium Telluride Surfaces

A new method for Cd-rich annealing of mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) was developed based on the observation that the deposition of Cd onto MCT by vacuum evaporation became self-limiting whenever the substrate temperature was above 70°C regardless of the Cd evaporation rate. Preliminary results indicated that this new method may be suitable for passivation of high-aspect-ratio MCT surfaces, for passivation at low temperatures, for in vacuo operation, and/or for vacancy annihilation in MCT. Furthermore, the process can be carried out in the conventional open-tube reactors used for molecular beam epitaxy, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, and physical vapor deposition.