Detailed study of above bandgap optical absorption in HgCdTe

HgCdTe remains the material of choice for high-performance infrared (IR) detectors due to its tunable direct bandgap energy corresponding to the IR spectral region, and the advancement of HgCdTe materials growth and processing technologies. Accurate knowledge of the HgCdTe optical absorption coefficient is important for IR detector design, layer screening, and device analysis. The spectral response for IR detectors is dependent on optical absorption above the bandgap energy, where much of the study of absorption coefficient in HgCdTe has focused on the bandtail region. In this work, the optical absorption coefficient was studied by theoretical bandstructure calculations and experimental measurements on HgCdTe layers using techniques of IR spectroscopic ellipsometry and IR transmission. The theoretical and experimental results suggest that the absorption coefficient between 600 cm(-1) and 5,000 cm(-1) is related to energy relative to bandgap with a fractional exponent between 0.6 and 1, rather than the previously used expressions relating to a parabolic or hyperbolic bandstructure. The fitting parameters for Hg1-xCdxTe with x = 0.22-0.60 are presented to develop a model for the optical absorption coefficient spectra. The calculated detector spectral response using the new and previously reported absorption coefficient models suggests that next generation IR detectors employing multilayer structures with graded compositional profiles will likely benefit from this new model.