Development of a Method for Chemical–Mechanical Preparation of the Surface of CdZnTe Substrates for HgCdTe-Based Infrared Focal-Plane Arrays

This paper reports the first implementation in our laboratory of a chemical–mechanical polishing (CMP) process for CdZnTe (CZT) substrates prepared for growth of HgCdTe layers by liquid phase epitaxy and molecular beam epitaxy. The process enables significant reduction of the thickness of the damaged zone induced by the mechanical polishing that must be etched away before epitaxy. Resulting improvements in surface morphology, in terms of waviness and density of point defects, are reported. The chemical state of surfaces polished by CMP was characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The chemical state was highly homogeneous; comparison with a reference surface is reported. End use assessment of this surface processing was compared with that of reference substrates by preparation of focal-plane arrays in the medium-wavelength infrared spectral range, by using epitaxial layers grown on substrates polished by different methods. The electro-optical performance of the detectors, in terms of photovoltaic noise operability, are reported. The results reveal that the state of this CMP surface is at the level of the best commercial substrates.