Relaxation of electrical properties of n-type layers formed by ion milling in epitaxial HgCdTe doped with V-group acceptors

The relaxation of electrical properties of As- and Sb-doped HgCdTe epitaxial layers, which were converted into n-type by ion milling, is studied. It is shown that donor complexes formed under ion milling and responsible for p-to-n conductivity type conversion are not stable, and their concentration decreases upon storage even at room temperature. Increasing the temperature of the storage speeds up the relaxation process. It is demonstrated that the relaxation is caused by the disintegration of the donor complexes that starts right after the end of the milling process because of the decrease in the concentration of interstitial mercury atoms, which were generated during the milling. The results presented in the paper are important for the development of the technology of photodetectors based on HgCdTe doped with V-group acceptors.