As Doping in (Hg,Cd)Te: An Alternative Point of View

Acceptor doping of many II–VI compound semiconductors has proved problematic and doping of epitaxial mercury cadmium telluride (MCT, Hg1−x Cd x Te) with arsenic is no exception. High-temperature (>400°C) anneals followed by a lower temperature mercury-rich vacancy-filling anneal are frequently required to activate the dopant. The model frequently used to explain p-type doping with arsenic invokes an amphoteric nature of group V atoms in the II–VI lattice. This requires that group VI substitution with arsenic only occurs under mercury-rich conditions either during growth or the subsequent annealing and involves site switching of the As. However, there are inconsistencies in the amphoteric model and unexplained experimental observations, including arsenic which is 100% active as grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy (MOVPE). A new model, based on hydrogen passivation of the arsenic, is therefore proposed.