study for advanced development of by harris halpert and

87
STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (Hg,Cd)Te DETECTORS By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koehler Honeywell Radiation Center Prepared under Contract No. NAS 1-8996 Honeywell Radiation Center Lexington, Mass. for NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION ~- _ (PAgES) (CODE) (NASA CR OR'IX OR AD NUMBER) (CATEGORY)

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Page 1: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (HgCd)Te DETECTORS

By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koehler Honeywell Radiation Center

Prepared under Contract No NAS 1-8996 Honeywell Radiation Center

Lexington Mass

for

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

~shy

_ (PAgES) (CODE)

(NASA CR ORIX OR AD NUMBER) (CATEGORY)

c-6

STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (HgCd)Te DETECTORS

By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koebler Honeywell Radiation Center

Prepared under Contract No NAS 1-8996 Honeywell Radiation Center

Lexington Mass

for

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

PRampECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT FILMED

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION PAGE NO

INTRODUCTION 1

CHARACTERISTICS OF If NOISE 1

Frequency Spectrum of 1f Noise 1

General Characteristics of 1f Noise 1

SOURCES OF 1f NOISE 7

Introduction 7

Noise Sources 8

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 iam (HgCd)Te 15

Background 15

Material Inventory 19

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques 27

Initial Experimentation 34

Later Experimentation 42

High p Study 59

SUMMARY 78

Problem Areas 79

Discussion 79

REFERENCES 80

iii

3

FIGURE

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

NO TITLE PAGE NO

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

TYPICAL SEMICONDUCTOR SURFACE 10

NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (HgCd)Te 16

1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY 18

SLAB LOCATIONS 20 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH 22 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS 23 TYPICAL SPECTRAL RESPONSIVITY 24

THERMAL PROBE RESULTS 25 REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA 26 ROW A STANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC1 11 31 ROW B STANDARD ETCH 32

DEVICE CROSS-SECTION 35 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT 38 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT 40

MAGNETIC FIELD EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3 kc) VS BIAS CURRENT 41

FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE 43

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS)) 44

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS)) 45

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS)) 46

iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

FIGURE NO TITLE PAGE NO

21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES 48

22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH OF SAMPLE 4 49

23 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO 4 51

24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B552

25 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6 53

26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9 54

27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY 56

28 p VS n 57

29 SAMPLE B5 DATA 61

30 SAMPLE D9 DATA 62

31 SAMPLE A8 DATA 63 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA 64

33 SAMPLE A10 DATA 65 34 SAMPLE All DATA 66

35 SAMPLE A12 DATA 67

36 SAMPLE A13 DATA 68

37 SAMPLE S152 HS 4 DATA 69 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA 70

39 SAMPLE HS 125 (EANNEAL) DATA 71 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNAL) DATA 72

41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT C 74 42 SAMPLE A 2 DATA 75

43 SAMPLE A 3 DATA 76 44 SAMPLE AlO DATA 77

V

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

TABLE NO TITLE PAGE NO

I 1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 OK 21

II HALL DATA 28

III ETCHES CONSIDERED 30

IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT 37

V HALL SAMPLE DATA 50

VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES 60

vi

STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (HgCd)Te DETECTORS

By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koehler Honeywell Radiation Center

INTRODUCTION

A theoretical and experimental program has been undertaken

to study 1f noise in (HgCd)Te with a peak response of 15 pm

The main purpose has been to develop high performance 15 jim (HgCd)Te

detectors for slow scan operation in radiatively cooled satellite

applications requiring low bias power consumption As a result of

these requirements the main emphasis has been to isolate the source

of 1f noise as either the contacts surface or bulk as a first

step toward reducing 1f noise in high resistivity material

This report discusses the characteristics of 1f noise preshy

vious attempts to find a source and mechanism of 1f noise in other

materials and the progress made in the understanding of 1f noise

in (HgCd)Te

CHARACTERISTICS OF 1f NOISE

Frequency Spectrum of 1f Noise

When direct current is passed through semiconductor material

and the log mean square noise current is plotted vs log frequency

1

we obtain the classic noise spectrum shown in Figure 1 Aside from

the generation-recombination (g-r) noise found at intermediate freshy

quencies and the thermal noise seen beyond the g-r rolloff this

spectrum exhibits low frequency excess noise This noise which

decreases rapidly with increasing frequency is known as 1f noise

Actually very few investigators find an exact 1f law usually the

spectrum has the form 1fn where n can vary from 09 to 12

No single simple physical process has been found that will

give this characteristic 1f noise spectrum A flat spectrum or

white noise can be obtained from the sum of many similar time inshy

dependent events and a 1f2 spectrum can be obtained from the high

frequency portion of the g-r noise where w - gtgt 1 but a spectrum

intermediate between these two (ie 1f) has been difficult to

synthesize from a single elementary process

It has been shown by Vander ZielI that the 1f law however

cannot hold in the whole frequency range If a fluctuating quantity

X(t) is defined for 0 lt t lt t we obtain from the Wiener-Khinchin

theorem the fact that

F(f) = 4 X(t)2 f c(t) cos wt dt (1) 0

where F(f) is the resulting power spectral distribution function

and c(t) is the normalized correlation function such that

c(t) = X(t) X(t + t) X(t)2

2

1if noise region

I7e Iegr noise

1f I(nee___

region gr roll off

I I

Thermal region

Noise

Figure1

log f--- 2

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

c(t) = I for t = 0 c(t) is independent of t and c(t) = 0 when

t gtgt r where T is the correlation time In the case of flucshy

tuating quantities which are caused by a large number of independent

events occurring at random T is the duration of the event in the

case of fluctuations involving decay problems measures the average

lifetime of the decay

F(f) cannot satisfy a 1f spectra for all frequencies ioe

0 lt f lt w for according to a well known Fourier theorem we can reshy

verse Equation (1) such that

X(t) X(t + t) = f F(f) cos 2 v f w df 0

The autocorrelation function has to be a bounded continuous

function which converges for all values of t Thus F(f) has to

vary slower than 1f for low frequencies and faster than If for

high frequencies

Shot or g-r noise has a correlation function which is dependent

upon one correlation time T and gives a frequency dependence of

F(f) = constant x T (1 + W T2)

F(f) is then independent of frequency if w r ltlt 1 and is proportional

to 1f2 for W T gtgt 1 This is quite different from a 1f law

It is difficult to find a single event which gives rise to a

correlation function such that the If law is the result of it

4

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 2: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

c-6

STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (HgCd)Te DETECTORS

By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koebler Honeywell Radiation Center

Prepared under Contract No NAS 1-8996 Honeywell Radiation Center

Lexington Mass

for

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

PRampECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT FILMED

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION PAGE NO

INTRODUCTION 1

CHARACTERISTICS OF If NOISE 1

Frequency Spectrum of 1f Noise 1

General Characteristics of 1f Noise 1

SOURCES OF 1f NOISE 7

Introduction 7

Noise Sources 8

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 iam (HgCd)Te 15

Background 15

Material Inventory 19

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques 27

Initial Experimentation 34

Later Experimentation 42

High p Study 59

SUMMARY 78

Problem Areas 79

Discussion 79

REFERENCES 80

iii

3

FIGURE

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

NO TITLE PAGE NO

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

TYPICAL SEMICONDUCTOR SURFACE 10

NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (HgCd)Te 16

1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY 18

SLAB LOCATIONS 20 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH 22 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS 23 TYPICAL SPECTRAL RESPONSIVITY 24

THERMAL PROBE RESULTS 25 REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA 26 ROW A STANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC1 11 31 ROW B STANDARD ETCH 32

DEVICE CROSS-SECTION 35 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT 38 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT 40

MAGNETIC FIELD EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3 kc) VS BIAS CURRENT 41

FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE 43

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS)) 44

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS)) 45

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS)) 46

iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

FIGURE NO TITLE PAGE NO

21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES 48

22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH OF SAMPLE 4 49

23 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO 4 51

24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B552

25 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6 53

26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9 54

27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY 56

28 p VS n 57

29 SAMPLE B5 DATA 61

30 SAMPLE D9 DATA 62

31 SAMPLE A8 DATA 63 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA 64

33 SAMPLE A10 DATA 65 34 SAMPLE All DATA 66

35 SAMPLE A12 DATA 67

36 SAMPLE A13 DATA 68

37 SAMPLE S152 HS 4 DATA 69 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA 70

39 SAMPLE HS 125 (EANNEAL) DATA 71 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNAL) DATA 72

41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT C 74 42 SAMPLE A 2 DATA 75

43 SAMPLE A 3 DATA 76 44 SAMPLE AlO DATA 77

V

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

TABLE NO TITLE PAGE NO

I 1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 OK 21

II HALL DATA 28

III ETCHES CONSIDERED 30

IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT 37

V HALL SAMPLE DATA 50

VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES 60

vi

STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (HgCd)Te DETECTORS

By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koehler Honeywell Radiation Center

INTRODUCTION

A theoretical and experimental program has been undertaken

to study 1f noise in (HgCd)Te with a peak response of 15 pm

The main purpose has been to develop high performance 15 jim (HgCd)Te

detectors for slow scan operation in radiatively cooled satellite

applications requiring low bias power consumption As a result of

these requirements the main emphasis has been to isolate the source

of 1f noise as either the contacts surface or bulk as a first

step toward reducing 1f noise in high resistivity material

This report discusses the characteristics of 1f noise preshy

vious attempts to find a source and mechanism of 1f noise in other

materials and the progress made in the understanding of 1f noise

in (HgCd)Te

CHARACTERISTICS OF 1f NOISE

Frequency Spectrum of 1f Noise

When direct current is passed through semiconductor material

and the log mean square noise current is plotted vs log frequency

1

we obtain the classic noise spectrum shown in Figure 1 Aside from

the generation-recombination (g-r) noise found at intermediate freshy

quencies and the thermal noise seen beyond the g-r rolloff this

spectrum exhibits low frequency excess noise This noise which

decreases rapidly with increasing frequency is known as 1f noise

Actually very few investigators find an exact 1f law usually the

spectrum has the form 1fn where n can vary from 09 to 12

No single simple physical process has been found that will

give this characteristic 1f noise spectrum A flat spectrum or

white noise can be obtained from the sum of many similar time inshy

dependent events and a 1f2 spectrum can be obtained from the high

frequency portion of the g-r noise where w - gtgt 1 but a spectrum

intermediate between these two (ie 1f) has been difficult to

synthesize from a single elementary process

It has been shown by Vander ZielI that the 1f law however

cannot hold in the whole frequency range If a fluctuating quantity

X(t) is defined for 0 lt t lt t we obtain from the Wiener-Khinchin

theorem the fact that

F(f) = 4 X(t)2 f c(t) cos wt dt (1) 0

where F(f) is the resulting power spectral distribution function

and c(t) is the normalized correlation function such that

c(t) = X(t) X(t + t) X(t)2

2

1if noise region

I7e Iegr noise

1f I(nee___

region gr roll off

I I

Thermal region

Noise

Figure1

log f--- 2

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

c(t) = I for t = 0 c(t) is independent of t and c(t) = 0 when

t gtgt r where T is the correlation time In the case of flucshy

tuating quantities which are caused by a large number of independent

events occurring at random T is the duration of the event in the

case of fluctuations involving decay problems measures the average

lifetime of the decay

F(f) cannot satisfy a 1f spectra for all frequencies ioe

0 lt f lt w for according to a well known Fourier theorem we can reshy

verse Equation (1) such that

X(t) X(t + t) = f F(f) cos 2 v f w df 0

The autocorrelation function has to be a bounded continuous

function which converges for all values of t Thus F(f) has to

vary slower than 1f for low frequencies and faster than If for

high frequencies

Shot or g-r noise has a correlation function which is dependent

upon one correlation time T and gives a frequency dependence of

F(f) = constant x T (1 + W T2)

F(f) is then independent of frequency if w r ltlt 1 and is proportional

to 1f2 for W T gtgt 1 This is quite different from a 1f law

It is difficult to find a single event which gives rise to a

correlation function such that the If law is the result of it

4

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 3: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

PRampECEDING PAGE BLANK NOT FILMED

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION PAGE NO

INTRODUCTION 1

CHARACTERISTICS OF If NOISE 1

Frequency Spectrum of 1f Noise 1

General Characteristics of 1f Noise 1

SOURCES OF 1f NOISE 7

Introduction 7

Noise Sources 8

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 iam (HgCd)Te 15

Background 15

Material Inventory 19

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques 27

Initial Experimentation 34

Later Experimentation 42

High p Study 59

SUMMARY 78

Problem Areas 79

Discussion 79

REFERENCES 80

iii

3

FIGURE

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

NO TITLE PAGE NO

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

TYPICAL SEMICONDUCTOR SURFACE 10

NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (HgCd)Te 16

1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY 18

SLAB LOCATIONS 20 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH 22 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS 23 TYPICAL SPECTRAL RESPONSIVITY 24

THERMAL PROBE RESULTS 25 REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA 26 ROW A STANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC1 11 31 ROW B STANDARD ETCH 32

DEVICE CROSS-SECTION 35 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT 38 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT 40

MAGNETIC FIELD EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3 kc) VS BIAS CURRENT 41

FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE 43

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS)) 44

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS)) 45

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS)) 46

iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

FIGURE NO TITLE PAGE NO

21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES 48

22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH OF SAMPLE 4 49

23 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO 4 51

24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B552

25 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6 53

26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9 54

27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY 56

28 p VS n 57

29 SAMPLE B5 DATA 61

30 SAMPLE D9 DATA 62

31 SAMPLE A8 DATA 63 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA 64

33 SAMPLE A10 DATA 65 34 SAMPLE All DATA 66

35 SAMPLE A12 DATA 67

36 SAMPLE A13 DATA 68

37 SAMPLE S152 HS 4 DATA 69 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA 70

39 SAMPLE HS 125 (EANNEAL) DATA 71 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNAL) DATA 72

41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT C 74 42 SAMPLE A 2 DATA 75

43 SAMPLE A 3 DATA 76 44 SAMPLE AlO DATA 77

V

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

TABLE NO TITLE PAGE NO

I 1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 OK 21

II HALL DATA 28

III ETCHES CONSIDERED 30

IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT 37

V HALL SAMPLE DATA 50

VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES 60

vi

STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (HgCd)Te DETECTORS

By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koehler Honeywell Radiation Center

INTRODUCTION

A theoretical and experimental program has been undertaken

to study 1f noise in (HgCd)Te with a peak response of 15 pm

The main purpose has been to develop high performance 15 jim (HgCd)Te

detectors for slow scan operation in radiatively cooled satellite

applications requiring low bias power consumption As a result of

these requirements the main emphasis has been to isolate the source

of 1f noise as either the contacts surface or bulk as a first

step toward reducing 1f noise in high resistivity material

This report discusses the characteristics of 1f noise preshy

vious attempts to find a source and mechanism of 1f noise in other

materials and the progress made in the understanding of 1f noise

in (HgCd)Te

CHARACTERISTICS OF 1f NOISE

Frequency Spectrum of 1f Noise

When direct current is passed through semiconductor material

and the log mean square noise current is plotted vs log frequency

1

we obtain the classic noise spectrum shown in Figure 1 Aside from

the generation-recombination (g-r) noise found at intermediate freshy

quencies and the thermal noise seen beyond the g-r rolloff this

spectrum exhibits low frequency excess noise This noise which

decreases rapidly with increasing frequency is known as 1f noise

Actually very few investigators find an exact 1f law usually the

spectrum has the form 1fn where n can vary from 09 to 12

No single simple physical process has been found that will

give this characteristic 1f noise spectrum A flat spectrum or

white noise can be obtained from the sum of many similar time inshy

dependent events and a 1f2 spectrum can be obtained from the high

frequency portion of the g-r noise where w - gtgt 1 but a spectrum

intermediate between these two (ie 1f) has been difficult to

synthesize from a single elementary process

It has been shown by Vander ZielI that the 1f law however

cannot hold in the whole frequency range If a fluctuating quantity

X(t) is defined for 0 lt t lt t we obtain from the Wiener-Khinchin

theorem the fact that

F(f) = 4 X(t)2 f c(t) cos wt dt (1) 0

where F(f) is the resulting power spectral distribution function

and c(t) is the normalized correlation function such that

c(t) = X(t) X(t + t) X(t)2

2

1if noise region

I7e Iegr noise

1f I(nee___

region gr roll off

I I

Thermal region

Noise

Figure1

log f--- 2

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

c(t) = I for t = 0 c(t) is independent of t and c(t) = 0 when

t gtgt r where T is the correlation time In the case of flucshy

tuating quantities which are caused by a large number of independent

events occurring at random T is the duration of the event in the

case of fluctuations involving decay problems measures the average

lifetime of the decay

F(f) cannot satisfy a 1f spectra for all frequencies ioe

0 lt f lt w for according to a well known Fourier theorem we can reshy

verse Equation (1) such that

X(t) X(t + t) = f F(f) cos 2 v f w df 0

The autocorrelation function has to be a bounded continuous

function which converges for all values of t Thus F(f) has to

vary slower than 1f for low frequencies and faster than If for

high frequencies

Shot or g-r noise has a correlation function which is dependent

upon one correlation time T and gives a frequency dependence of

F(f) = constant x T (1 + W T2)

F(f) is then independent of frequency if w r ltlt 1 and is proportional

to 1f2 for W T gtgt 1 This is quite different from a 1f law

It is difficult to find a single event which gives rise to a

correlation function such that the If law is the result of it

4

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 4: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

3

FIGURE

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

NO TITLE PAGE NO

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

TYPICAL SEMICONDUCTOR SURFACE 10

NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (HgCd)Te 16

1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY 18

SLAB LOCATIONS 20 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH 22 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS 23 TYPICAL SPECTRAL RESPONSIVITY 24

THERMAL PROBE RESULTS 25 REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA 26 ROW A STANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC1 11 31 ROW B STANDARD ETCH 32

DEVICE CROSS-SECTION 35 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT 38 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT 40

MAGNETIC FIELD EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3 kc) VS BIAS CURRENT 41

FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE 43

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS)) 44

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS)) 45

RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS)) 46

iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

FIGURE NO TITLE PAGE NO

21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES 48

22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH OF SAMPLE 4 49

23 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO 4 51

24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B552

25 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6 53

26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9 54

27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY 56

28 p VS n 57

29 SAMPLE B5 DATA 61

30 SAMPLE D9 DATA 62

31 SAMPLE A8 DATA 63 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA 64

33 SAMPLE A10 DATA 65 34 SAMPLE All DATA 66

35 SAMPLE A12 DATA 67

36 SAMPLE A13 DATA 68

37 SAMPLE S152 HS 4 DATA 69 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA 70

39 SAMPLE HS 125 (EANNEAL) DATA 71 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNAL) DATA 72

41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT C 74 42 SAMPLE A 2 DATA 75

43 SAMPLE A 3 DATA 76 44 SAMPLE AlO DATA 77

V

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

TABLE NO TITLE PAGE NO

I 1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 OK 21

II HALL DATA 28

III ETCHES CONSIDERED 30

IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT 37

V HALL SAMPLE DATA 50

VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES 60

vi

STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (HgCd)Te DETECTORS

By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koehler Honeywell Radiation Center

INTRODUCTION

A theoretical and experimental program has been undertaken

to study 1f noise in (HgCd)Te with a peak response of 15 pm

The main purpose has been to develop high performance 15 jim (HgCd)Te

detectors for slow scan operation in radiatively cooled satellite

applications requiring low bias power consumption As a result of

these requirements the main emphasis has been to isolate the source

of 1f noise as either the contacts surface or bulk as a first

step toward reducing 1f noise in high resistivity material

This report discusses the characteristics of 1f noise preshy

vious attempts to find a source and mechanism of 1f noise in other

materials and the progress made in the understanding of 1f noise

in (HgCd)Te

CHARACTERISTICS OF 1f NOISE

Frequency Spectrum of 1f Noise

When direct current is passed through semiconductor material

and the log mean square noise current is plotted vs log frequency

1

we obtain the classic noise spectrum shown in Figure 1 Aside from

the generation-recombination (g-r) noise found at intermediate freshy

quencies and the thermal noise seen beyond the g-r rolloff this

spectrum exhibits low frequency excess noise This noise which

decreases rapidly with increasing frequency is known as 1f noise

Actually very few investigators find an exact 1f law usually the

spectrum has the form 1fn where n can vary from 09 to 12

No single simple physical process has been found that will

give this characteristic 1f noise spectrum A flat spectrum or

white noise can be obtained from the sum of many similar time inshy

dependent events and a 1f2 spectrum can be obtained from the high

frequency portion of the g-r noise where w - gtgt 1 but a spectrum

intermediate between these two (ie 1f) has been difficult to

synthesize from a single elementary process

It has been shown by Vander ZielI that the 1f law however

cannot hold in the whole frequency range If a fluctuating quantity

X(t) is defined for 0 lt t lt t we obtain from the Wiener-Khinchin

theorem the fact that

F(f) = 4 X(t)2 f c(t) cos wt dt (1) 0

where F(f) is the resulting power spectral distribution function

and c(t) is the normalized correlation function such that

c(t) = X(t) X(t + t) X(t)2

2

1if noise region

I7e Iegr noise

1f I(nee___

region gr roll off

I I

Thermal region

Noise

Figure1

log f--- 2

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

c(t) = I for t = 0 c(t) is independent of t and c(t) = 0 when

t gtgt r where T is the correlation time In the case of flucshy

tuating quantities which are caused by a large number of independent

events occurring at random T is the duration of the event in the

case of fluctuations involving decay problems measures the average

lifetime of the decay

F(f) cannot satisfy a 1f spectra for all frequencies ioe

0 lt f lt w for according to a well known Fourier theorem we can reshy

verse Equation (1) such that

X(t) X(t + t) = f F(f) cos 2 v f w df 0

The autocorrelation function has to be a bounded continuous

function which converges for all values of t Thus F(f) has to

vary slower than 1f for low frequencies and faster than If for

high frequencies

Shot or g-r noise has a correlation function which is dependent

upon one correlation time T and gives a frequency dependence of

F(f) = constant x T (1 + W T2)

F(f) is then independent of frequency if w r ltlt 1 and is proportional

to 1f2 for W T gtgt 1 This is quite different from a 1f law

It is difficult to find a single event which gives rise to a

correlation function such that the If law is the result of it

4

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 5: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

FIGURE NO TITLE PAGE NO

21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES 48

22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH OF SAMPLE 4 49

23 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO 4 51

24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B552

25 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6 53

26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9 54

27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY 56

28 p VS n 57

29 SAMPLE B5 DATA 61

30 SAMPLE D9 DATA 62

31 SAMPLE A8 DATA 63 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA 64

33 SAMPLE A10 DATA 65 34 SAMPLE All DATA 66

35 SAMPLE A12 DATA 67

36 SAMPLE A13 DATA 68

37 SAMPLE S152 HS 4 DATA 69 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA 70

39 SAMPLE HS 125 (EANNEAL) DATA 71 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNAL) DATA 72

41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT C 74 42 SAMPLE A 2 DATA 75

43 SAMPLE A 3 DATA 76 44 SAMPLE AlO DATA 77

V

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

TABLE NO TITLE PAGE NO

I 1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 OK 21

II HALL DATA 28

III ETCHES CONSIDERED 30

IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT 37

V HALL SAMPLE DATA 50

VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES 60

vi

STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (HgCd)Te DETECTORS

By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koehler Honeywell Radiation Center

INTRODUCTION

A theoretical and experimental program has been undertaken

to study 1f noise in (HgCd)Te with a peak response of 15 pm

The main purpose has been to develop high performance 15 jim (HgCd)Te

detectors for slow scan operation in radiatively cooled satellite

applications requiring low bias power consumption As a result of

these requirements the main emphasis has been to isolate the source

of 1f noise as either the contacts surface or bulk as a first

step toward reducing 1f noise in high resistivity material

This report discusses the characteristics of 1f noise preshy

vious attempts to find a source and mechanism of 1f noise in other

materials and the progress made in the understanding of 1f noise

in (HgCd)Te

CHARACTERISTICS OF 1f NOISE

Frequency Spectrum of 1f Noise

When direct current is passed through semiconductor material

and the log mean square noise current is plotted vs log frequency

1

we obtain the classic noise spectrum shown in Figure 1 Aside from

the generation-recombination (g-r) noise found at intermediate freshy

quencies and the thermal noise seen beyond the g-r rolloff this

spectrum exhibits low frequency excess noise This noise which

decreases rapidly with increasing frequency is known as 1f noise

Actually very few investigators find an exact 1f law usually the

spectrum has the form 1fn where n can vary from 09 to 12

No single simple physical process has been found that will

give this characteristic 1f noise spectrum A flat spectrum or

white noise can be obtained from the sum of many similar time inshy

dependent events and a 1f2 spectrum can be obtained from the high

frequency portion of the g-r noise where w - gtgt 1 but a spectrum

intermediate between these two (ie 1f) has been difficult to

synthesize from a single elementary process

It has been shown by Vander ZielI that the 1f law however

cannot hold in the whole frequency range If a fluctuating quantity

X(t) is defined for 0 lt t lt t we obtain from the Wiener-Khinchin

theorem the fact that

F(f) = 4 X(t)2 f c(t) cos wt dt (1) 0

where F(f) is the resulting power spectral distribution function

and c(t) is the normalized correlation function such that

c(t) = X(t) X(t + t) X(t)2

2

1if noise region

I7e Iegr noise

1f I(nee___

region gr roll off

I I

Thermal region

Noise

Figure1

log f--- 2

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

c(t) = I for t = 0 c(t) is independent of t and c(t) = 0 when

t gtgt r where T is the correlation time In the case of flucshy

tuating quantities which are caused by a large number of independent

events occurring at random T is the duration of the event in the

case of fluctuations involving decay problems measures the average

lifetime of the decay

F(f) cannot satisfy a 1f spectra for all frequencies ioe

0 lt f lt w for according to a well known Fourier theorem we can reshy

verse Equation (1) such that

X(t) X(t + t) = f F(f) cos 2 v f w df 0

The autocorrelation function has to be a bounded continuous

function which converges for all values of t Thus F(f) has to

vary slower than 1f for low frequencies and faster than If for

high frequencies

Shot or g-r noise has a correlation function which is dependent

upon one correlation time T and gives a frequency dependence of

F(f) = constant x T (1 + W T2)

F(f) is then independent of frequency if w r ltlt 1 and is proportional

to 1f2 for W T gtgt 1 This is quite different from a 1f law

It is difficult to find a single event which gives rise to a

correlation function such that the If law is the result of it

4

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 6: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES (CONT)

TABLE NO TITLE PAGE NO

I 1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 OK 21

II HALL DATA 28

III ETCHES CONSIDERED 30

IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT 37

V HALL SAMPLE DATA 50

VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES 60

vi

STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (HgCd)Te DETECTORS

By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koehler Honeywell Radiation Center

INTRODUCTION

A theoretical and experimental program has been undertaken

to study 1f noise in (HgCd)Te with a peak response of 15 pm

The main purpose has been to develop high performance 15 jim (HgCd)Te

detectors for slow scan operation in radiatively cooled satellite

applications requiring low bias power consumption As a result of

these requirements the main emphasis has been to isolate the source

of 1f noise as either the contacts surface or bulk as a first

step toward reducing 1f noise in high resistivity material

This report discusses the characteristics of 1f noise preshy

vious attempts to find a source and mechanism of 1f noise in other

materials and the progress made in the understanding of 1f noise

in (HgCd)Te

CHARACTERISTICS OF 1f NOISE

Frequency Spectrum of 1f Noise

When direct current is passed through semiconductor material

and the log mean square noise current is plotted vs log frequency

1

we obtain the classic noise spectrum shown in Figure 1 Aside from

the generation-recombination (g-r) noise found at intermediate freshy

quencies and the thermal noise seen beyond the g-r rolloff this

spectrum exhibits low frequency excess noise This noise which

decreases rapidly with increasing frequency is known as 1f noise

Actually very few investigators find an exact 1f law usually the

spectrum has the form 1fn where n can vary from 09 to 12

No single simple physical process has been found that will

give this characteristic 1f noise spectrum A flat spectrum or

white noise can be obtained from the sum of many similar time inshy

dependent events and a 1f2 spectrum can be obtained from the high

frequency portion of the g-r noise where w - gtgt 1 but a spectrum

intermediate between these two (ie 1f) has been difficult to

synthesize from a single elementary process

It has been shown by Vander ZielI that the 1f law however

cannot hold in the whole frequency range If a fluctuating quantity

X(t) is defined for 0 lt t lt t we obtain from the Wiener-Khinchin

theorem the fact that

F(f) = 4 X(t)2 f c(t) cos wt dt (1) 0

where F(f) is the resulting power spectral distribution function

and c(t) is the normalized correlation function such that

c(t) = X(t) X(t + t) X(t)2

2

1if noise region

I7e Iegr noise

1f I(nee___

region gr roll off

I I

Thermal region

Noise

Figure1

log f--- 2

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

c(t) = I for t = 0 c(t) is independent of t and c(t) = 0 when

t gtgt r where T is the correlation time In the case of flucshy

tuating quantities which are caused by a large number of independent

events occurring at random T is the duration of the event in the

case of fluctuations involving decay problems measures the average

lifetime of the decay

F(f) cannot satisfy a 1f spectra for all frequencies ioe

0 lt f lt w for according to a well known Fourier theorem we can reshy

verse Equation (1) such that

X(t) X(t + t) = f F(f) cos 2 v f w df 0

The autocorrelation function has to be a bounded continuous

function which converges for all values of t Thus F(f) has to

vary slower than 1f for low frequencies and faster than If for

high frequencies

Shot or g-r noise has a correlation function which is dependent

upon one correlation time T and gives a frequency dependence of

F(f) = constant x T (1 + W T2)

F(f) is then independent of frequency if w r ltlt 1 and is proportional

to 1f2 for W T gtgt 1 This is quite different from a 1f law

It is difficult to find a single event which gives rise to a

correlation function such that the If law is the result of it

4

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 7: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF 15-MICRON (HgCd)Te DETECTORS

By Harris Halpert and Toivo Koehler Honeywell Radiation Center

INTRODUCTION

A theoretical and experimental program has been undertaken

to study 1f noise in (HgCd)Te with a peak response of 15 pm

The main purpose has been to develop high performance 15 jim (HgCd)Te

detectors for slow scan operation in radiatively cooled satellite

applications requiring low bias power consumption As a result of

these requirements the main emphasis has been to isolate the source

of 1f noise as either the contacts surface or bulk as a first

step toward reducing 1f noise in high resistivity material

This report discusses the characteristics of 1f noise preshy

vious attempts to find a source and mechanism of 1f noise in other

materials and the progress made in the understanding of 1f noise

in (HgCd)Te

CHARACTERISTICS OF 1f NOISE

Frequency Spectrum of 1f Noise

When direct current is passed through semiconductor material

and the log mean square noise current is plotted vs log frequency

1

we obtain the classic noise spectrum shown in Figure 1 Aside from

the generation-recombination (g-r) noise found at intermediate freshy

quencies and the thermal noise seen beyond the g-r rolloff this

spectrum exhibits low frequency excess noise This noise which

decreases rapidly with increasing frequency is known as 1f noise

Actually very few investigators find an exact 1f law usually the

spectrum has the form 1fn where n can vary from 09 to 12

No single simple physical process has been found that will

give this characteristic 1f noise spectrum A flat spectrum or

white noise can be obtained from the sum of many similar time inshy

dependent events and a 1f2 spectrum can be obtained from the high

frequency portion of the g-r noise where w - gtgt 1 but a spectrum

intermediate between these two (ie 1f) has been difficult to

synthesize from a single elementary process

It has been shown by Vander ZielI that the 1f law however

cannot hold in the whole frequency range If a fluctuating quantity

X(t) is defined for 0 lt t lt t we obtain from the Wiener-Khinchin

theorem the fact that

F(f) = 4 X(t)2 f c(t) cos wt dt (1) 0

where F(f) is the resulting power spectral distribution function

and c(t) is the normalized correlation function such that

c(t) = X(t) X(t + t) X(t)2

2

1if noise region

I7e Iegr noise

1f I(nee___

region gr roll off

I I

Thermal region

Noise

Figure1

log f--- 2

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

c(t) = I for t = 0 c(t) is independent of t and c(t) = 0 when

t gtgt r where T is the correlation time In the case of flucshy

tuating quantities which are caused by a large number of independent

events occurring at random T is the duration of the event in the

case of fluctuations involving decay problems measures the average

lifetime of the decay

F(f) cannot satisfy a 1f spectra for all frequencies ioe

0 lt f lt w for according to a well known Fourier theorem we can reshy

verse Equation (1) such that

X(t) X(t + t) = f F(f) cos 2 v f w df 0

The autocorrelation function has to be a bounded continuous

function which converges for all values of t Thus F(f) has to

vary slower than 1f for low frequencies and faster than If for

high frequencies

Shot or g-r noise has a correlation function which is dependent

upon one correlation time T and gives a frequency dependence of

F(f) = constant x T (1 + W T2)

F(f) is then independent of frequency if w r ltlt 1 and is proportional

to 1f2 for W T gtgt 1 This is quite different from a 1f law

It is difficult to find a single event which gives rise to a

correlation function such that the If law is the result of it

4

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 8: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

we obtain the classic noise spectrum shown in Figure 1 Aside from

the generation-recombination (g-r) noise found at intermediate freshy

quencies and the thermal noise seen beyond the g-r rolloff this

spectrum exhibits low frequency excess noise This noise which

decreases rapidly with increasing frequency is known as 1f noise

Actually very few investigators find an exact 1f law usually the

spectrum has the form 1fn where n can vary from 09 to 12

No single simple physical process has been found that will

give this characteristic 1f noise spectrum A flat spectrum or

white noise can be obtained from the sum of many similar time inshy

dependent events and a 1f2 spectrum can be obtained from the high

frequency portion of the g-r noise where w - gtgt 1 but a spectrum

intermediate between these two (ie 1f) has been difficult to

synthesize from a single elementary process

It has been shown by Vander ZielI that the 1f law however

cannot hold in the whole frequency range If a fluctuating quantity

X(t) is defined for 0 lt t lt t we obtain from the Wiener-Khinchin

theorem the fact that

F(f) = 4 X(t)2 f c(t) cos wt dt (1) 0

where F(f) is the resulting power spectral distribution function

and c(t) is the normalized correlation function such that

c(t) = X(t) X(t + t) X(t)2

2

1if noise region

I7e Iegr noise

1f I(nee___

region gr roll off

I I

Thermal region

Noise

Figure1

log f--- 2

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

c(t) = I for t = 0 c(t) is independent of t and c(t) = 0 when

t gtgt r where T is the correlation time In the case of flucshy

tuating quantities which are caused by a large number of independent

events occurring at random T is the duration of the event in the

case of fluctuations involving decay problems measures the average

lifetime of the decay

F(f) cannot satisfy a 1f spectra for all frequencies ioe

0 lt f lt w for according to a well known Fourier theorem we can reshy

verse Equation (1) such that

X(t) X(t + t) = f F(f) cos 2 v f w df 0

The autocorrelation function has to be a bounded continuous

function which converges for all values of t Thus F(f) has to

vary slower than 1f for low frequencies and faster than If for

high frequencies

Shot or g-r noise has a correlation function which is dependent

upon one correlation time T and gives a frequency dependence of

F(f) = constant x T (1 + W T2)

F(f) is then independent of frequency if w r ltlt 1 and is proportional

to 1f2 for W T gtgt 1 This is quite different from a 1f law

It is difficult to find a single event which gives rise to a

correlation function such that the If law is the result of it

4

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 9: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

1if noise region

I7e Iegr noise

1f I(nee___

region gr roll off

I I

Thermal region

Noise

Figure1

log f--- 2

CLASSIC NOISE SPECTRUM

c(t) = I for t = 0 c(t) is independent of t and c(t) = 0 when

t gtgt r where T is the correlation time In the case of flucshy

tuating quantities which are caused by a large number of independent

events occurring at random T is the duration of the event in the

case of fluctuations involving decay problems measures the average

lifetime of the decay

F(f) cannot satisfy a 1f spectra for all frequencies ioe

0 lt f lt w for according to a well known Fourier theorem we can reshy

verse Equation (1) such that

X(t) X(t + t) = f F(f) cos 2 v f w df 0

The autocorrelation function has to be a bounded continuous

function which converges for all values of t Thus F(f) has to

vary slower than 1f for low frequencies and faster than If for

high frequencies

Shot or g-r noise has a correlation function which is dependent

upon one correlation time T and gives a frequency dependence of

F(f) = constant x T (1 + W T2)

F(f) is then independent of frequency if w r ltlt 1 and is proportional

to 1f2 for W T gtgt 1 This is quite different from a 1f law

It is difficult to find a single event which gives rise to a

correlation function such that the If law is the result of it

4

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 10: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

c(t) = I for t = 0 c(t) is independent of t and c(t) = 0 when

t gtgt r where T is the correlation time In the case of flucshy

tuating quantities which are caused by a large number of independent

events occurring at random T is the duration of the event in the

case of fluctuations involving decay problems measures the average

lifetime of the decay

F(f) cannot satisfy a 1f spectra for all frequencies ioe

0 lt f lt w for according to a well known Fourier theorem we can reshy

verse Equation (1) such that

X(t) X(t + t) = f F(f) cos 2 v f w df 0

The autocorrelation function has to be a bounded continuous

function which converges for all values of t Thus F(f) has to

vary slower than 1f for low frequencies and faster than If for

high frequencies

Shot or g-r noise has a correlation function which is dependent

upon one correlation time T and gives a frequency dependence of

F(f) = constant x T (1 + W T2)

F(f) is then independent of frequency if w r ltlt 1 and is proportional

to 1f2 for W T gtgt 1 This is quite different from a 1f law

It is difficult to find a single event which gives rise to a

correlation function such that the If law is the result of it

4

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 11: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

The most successful procedure in synthesizing a 1f spectrum has

arisen from the superposition of many shot or g-r spectra If a

continuous distribution of correlation times r is introduced where

dP = g(r)d T represents the probability of a correlation time beshy

tween T and r+ d T and

g(r) = 0 - 1 gt T gt T 2

g(T) = IT 1 lt T lt 2

Then

2 2 21 T2 dF(f)= 4 X(t)W (l+ 2r) g(-r) dr=f 2 2

0 T 1 +-W T

= A (tan- T2 tan-i CD I)

1 1

If in the frequency range under consideration -gtgt W gtgtw

then

F(f) a 1f

with the assumption that this law is valid in a restricted frequency

region determined by upper and lower cut-off times _r2 and Tl Thus

to attain a 1f spectrum the probable frequency of r must then be

proportional to 1r between _T2 and 7-o

Experimental attempts to find the upper and lower frequency

limits of 1f noise in semiconductor devices has yielded a wide

range of frequencies where 1f noise is applicable By using

5

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 12: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

elaborate tape recording techniques the low frequency portion of

the spectrum has been investigated in various semiconductor devices

5 Hz in sili-The 1f law has been found to be valid down to 5 x 10

shy

and down to con and germanium rectifiers by Firle and Winston2

25 x 10-4 Hz in germanium filaments by Rollin and Templeton

3

observed if noise in two terminal germanium crystals up toHyde4

4 MHz and found a change-over to a 1f2 spectrum above that fre-

Other authors have reported measurements on single crystalquency

germanium filaments which indicate a departure from the 1f law at

Bess and Kisner7 noticed changes to a 1f

2

67high frequencies5

480 Hz for an etched germaniumdependence at frequencies as low as

2-cm) with a CC14 ambient and 570 Hzfilament (n-type roughly 30

for the same sample in air ambient after it had aged for two weeks

Nevertheless the wide range of frequencies over which the 1f

noise law holds had made it difficult to find a mechanism which

could be related to time constants present in the solid

General Characteristics of if Noise

One of the first measured properties of if noise was its de-

The noise power was proportional to the squarependence on current

of the current for germanium filaments80 Although deviations from

an 12 law have been noted the current dependence is generally a

A direct square law characteristic of conductivity fluctuations

Brophy andexperiment has substantiated the current dependence

Rostoker9 measured the noise from Hall effect probes as a function

Since dc Hall voltages are used to determineof magnetic field0

the average carrier density in semiconductors the Hall noise voltshy

age was interpreted in terms of carrier fluctuations The results

a conductivity modulationindicated that the if noise behaves as

6

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 13: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

1f noise is characterized by the property that it has been

found to be quite temperature invariant in several different deshy

vices Montgomery8 has found this to be true also in germanium

This temperature invariance over a wide range of temperatures has

raised questions as to the validity of many mechanisms (especially

diffusion and slow surface state models) proposed for 1f noise

Montgomery8 has found that 1f noise in germanium filaments

tends to increase with resistivity He came to the conclusion that

the ratio of 1f noise to Johnson noise at constant bias voltage

tends to be independent of the resistivity of the crystal0 Measureshy

ments by MacRae and LevinsteinI0 in gold doped germanium substanshy

tiated Montgomerys conclusion that

lt 2 gt a RV2

f

where V is the bias voltage and a some experimentally determined

constant

SOURCES OF If NOISE

Introduction

From the results of the 1f noise frequency spectrum the probshy

lem of 1f noise is reduced to finding a physical process that gives

rise to a distribution function proportional to 1r over an approshy

priate range of time constants0 Although electronic transitions

between traps and the conduction and valence bands may give long

7

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 14: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

trapping times such a distribution cannot arise from these transishy

tions0 Under these conditions the shortest time constant would

dominate the noise spectrum since it is the fastest process that

determines the average lifetime of a free carrier0 This is the

main reason that 1f noise cannot be caused by a superposition of

g-r noise terms involving deep traps

Brophy 12 demonstrated that 1f noise also occurs when conducshy

tivity changes are detected by placing the crystal in a temperature

gradient rather than in an electric field0 If we presume as Brophy

did that the noise is not inherent in the passage of current but

can be attributed to conductivity fluctuations there are two alshy

ternatives either the carrier densities themselves are modulated

(eog by the random creation and disappearance of donor centers)

or the rates of the carrier transitions are modulated in some way

Therefore the problem of 1f noise is that of finding a mechanism

or mechanisms which satisfactorily explains these conductivity modshy

ulations with the necessary distribution function to give a 1f

spectrum between appropriate frequency limits

Noise Sources

General - There are three possible sources of 1f noise the

contacts the surface or the bulk of the material Contact noise

can be bypassed through the use of voltage sidearm probes and it is

assumed that the remaining low frequency noise is characteristic of

the filament itself There is extensive experimental evidence to

show that 1f noise at least in germanium is predominantly a

8

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 15: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

surface phenomena although it should be noted that not all 1f noise originates from the surface Probably the most direct proof

for the surface dependence of 1f noise was given by Maple Bess

and Gebbie who found a 10 to 20 dB increase in 1f noise by

switching the filament from a dry nitrogen ambient to one of carbon tetrachloride Montgomery8 found that in germanium a sandblasted

surface usually gives the lowest noise while etching could raise

the noise voltage by a factor of ten or more though the dc resisshy

tance changed only a few percent He also could produce changes

in 1f noise by concentrating the carriers on the surface by means

of a magnetic field

The Surface - The basic model of a semiconductor surface has emerged from studies made for the most part on germanium and silicon

surfaces A fundamental energy level diagram of the surface is

shown in Figure 2 From the point of view of its electronic beshyhavior the surface may be roughly divided into three separate

regions the space-charge layer associated with surplus or deficit 5of free carriers of thickness 10- cm or greater the surface proper

consisting of the first few atomic planes of the semiconductor and in the case of a real surface an adsorbed layer of foreign material

In a semiconductor such as germanium or silicon this last consists

mainly of an oxide film usually 10-30 A thick together with varshyious species adsorbed from the etchant and the surrounding ambient

The oxide film is shown next to the semiconductor the midgaps of the two materials having been assumed to lie at the same energy

level

9

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 16: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

Fast X

States A q--Vdc Wp

4p Gaseous T Ambient q+VV~s

Sbn Ec

Slow States

Charge bullBulk Semiconductor v

Region

Insulating Film

Figure 2 TYPICAL SEM2ICONDUCTOR SURFACE

10

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 17: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

The fundamental variable characterizing the space-charge layer

is the barrier height Vs (or surface potential) which for given

bulk conditions determines uniquely the shape of the potential

barrier and the carrier distribution in this region The surface

proper and the adsorbed layer are usually the sites of localized

electronic states - the surface states These are known to be senshy

sitive to mechanical and chemical treatment and to the gaseous or

liquid environment to which the surface is exposed In germanium

and silicon the surface states can be divided into two distinct

categories according to whether the transition times between the

states and the underlying bulk are very short (microseconds or

less) or very long (seconds or more) The former the fast states

are in intimate contact with the semiconductor bulk and are probshy

ably located at or very close to the semiconductoroxide intershy

face The latter the slow states are associated with the oxide

and adsorbed species and are known to be distributed within the

oxide film andor on its outer surface Another fundamental entity

characterizing the surface is the work function Wp This is the

sum of the energy parameter Wbn = Ec - Ef the barrier height -qVs

and the electron affinity X

When the majority carrier density in the space charge region

is greater than that in the bulk the space charge region is termed

an accumulation layer An inversion layer is formed if the minority

carrier density at the surface is greater than the majority carrier

density in the bulk If the majority carrier density at the surface

and the minority carrier density at the surface are both less than

the majority carrier density in the bulk we refer to a depletion

layer

ii

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 18: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

The nature of the surface states was particularly investigated

with the aid of the field effect In this effect the conductivity

of the germanium sample is modulated by changing the surface charges

with the aid of a pulsed or sinusoidally modulated transverse elecshy

tric field (perpendicular to the surface) If a pulsed field is

applied there is first a relatively rapid response reaching a

value corresponding to some quasi-equilibrium state of the carriers

and the surface recombination centers Then the conductance decays

slowly to its original value with a half life for the decay ranging

from milliseconds to several seconds depending on the surface

treatment and the gaseous ambient The effect has been generally

analyzed assuming that the fast states are responsible for the

recombination velocity of the carriers and the slow states give

the tail in the response curve

McWhorter assumes that free carriers communicate with the slow

states by tunneling through the barrier The attractive feature of

this assumption is the temperature independence of this process

McWhorter measured the response to a sinusoidally varying field

In many cases the response could be approximated by

A a (n) = a log b w (2)

for frequencies f lt fmaxo If the slow surface states would have a

single capture time constant T then McWhorter shows that the reshy

sponse should be of the form 1j+w

12

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 19: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

The form (2) can only be explained if we introduce a distribushy

tion of Ts

a (T2 )(r) d rf- j j wJshy1+

For g(r) IT the result (2) is approximately found Apparently

this is just the distribution of time constants needed to obtain

1f noise0 It is accordingly very promising to assume that 1f

noise is caused by spontaneous fluctuations in the capture and reshy

lease of carriers by the slow surface states Unfortunately the

field experiments seem to indicate an upper value of fmax lower

than usually found for 1f noise

Bess 15 16 has proposed an entirely different interpretation

of 1f noise In accordance with the observation that the amount

of 1f noise can be changed by plastic deformation Bess assumed

that the noise was associated with edge dislocations Impurities

should be diffusing along the edge dislocation line to and from

the surface where they undergo some type of Brownian motion With

a highly specialized mathematical model this results in 1f noise

Although Bess theory per se may be doubtful some of his ideas

have been used by others Morrison1 7 pointed out that the energy

band structure in the neighborhood of a dislocation is similar to

that of the surface and a fluctuation of the trapped charge will

thus modulate the dislocation potential and the recombination

velocity yielding a 1f spectrum Jantschl819 has studied 1f

noise in silicon and he proposes a theory where 1f noise is proshy

duced by a modulation of surface recombination In this theory

13

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 20: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

chemisorbed water on an etched silicon surface acts as the slow states and are directly situated at the interface of the silicon and oxide layers Also the chemisorbed water itself acts as a fast surface state and consequently as a recombination center The chemisorbed molecules dissociate from their active centers and diffuse in the interface of the surface by Brownian motion until they are bonded again During the removal of a chemisorbed molecule from an active center a chemical bond is interrupted and surface recombination is modulated

His model was partially based on the experiments of Sah and Hielscher 20 who showed that the intensity of 1f noise is proporshytional to the number of fast surface states in silicon MOS devices

and partially upon his own experiments 19 which showed a relation between if noise current and the dc current of an alloyed silicon

diode biased in the reverse direction since reverse current is generated at surface recombination centers Such a theory is not in opposition to the experiments of MacRae21 who found that removing slow surface states in silicon by vacuum cleaning did not affect the magnitude or spectrum of 1f noise

Field effect experiments performed in germanium by MacRae and Levinstein22 showed an increase in if noise associated with an inversion layer at lower temperatures The magnitude of the 1f noise depended upon the ambient increasing with a decrease in the slow state relaxation time An investigation of the relaxation processes associated with the charge transfer between the bulk and slow surface states after the application of the dc electric field

14

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 21: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

revealed a 1f noise relaxation which was independent of the mode

of the conductivity relaxation The noise relaxed back to its

original value with a logarithmic time dependence characteristic

of a 1r distribution in time constants and the conductance decayed

with a combination of exponential and logarithmic terms depending

on the surface conditions

Some of the more recent theories of 1f noise have shown much

promise but the exact source and mechanism of 1f noise is still

uncertain

STUDY OF 1f NOISE IN 15 pm (HgCd)Te

Background

Fifteen micron (HgCd)Te has been found to exhibit a classic

noise spectrum where the low frequency performance is limited by

the 1f noise voltage Previous work23 performed at the Honeywell

Radiation Center has established the relationship between 1f noise

the bias current and the sample resistivity Figure 3 a plot of

1f noise voltage vs bias current in (HgCd)Te shows that p the

exponent of the bias current equals 2 This current dependence

suggests that 1f noise in (HgCd)Te is the result of carrier denshy

sity fluctuations as was seen in other semiconductors

Kruse et al13 have defined a 1f noise constant such that

2 R22 K 1 Af CI 1 2 R2 V1 f = fa A Af

15

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 22: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

3

25

Q)

4- 21-1 0 r

z15

4J

10

4 5 6 7 8IBias(mA) 9 10 15

Figure 3 NOISE VOLTAGE VS BIAS CURRENT IN 15 MICRON (Hged)Te

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 23: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

where

C1 is a factor dependent upon material but independent of

dimensions A the detector length and A the crossshysectional area

I is the bias current

R is the sample resistance

Af is the electrical bandwidth

p is the exponent of the frequency dependence which is

approximately 2

The noise voltage can be expressed in terms of the element resisshy

tivity p Thus

2 Cp 12 1f f A 3

so that

V2 f A3 C1 = 212

p2 1 Af

The noise constant Cl has been found to be dependent upon reshy

sistivity to the 52 power when C1 is plotted against p as in Figu

4 This makes the noise voltage dependent upon approximately the

square of the sample resistivity and says that low resistivity

(HgCd)Te detectors will exhibit low 1f However the source of

1f noise in (HgCd)Te has not been found and the main Emphasis of

the present study has been to isolate the source as contacts surshy

face or bulk

17

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 24: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

I I

I I

10-16

1IOI bull I

2 I I

I- 2 I I 52

C-0 sI

0 S 1 I I

i0- 19

40 reg

0

-C ARRAY ELEMENTS (111) I regVERY LONG WAVE- (15A)

LENGTH DETECTORS

HIGH RESISTANCE G15fLDETECTORS

20 I10shy01 01 10 10

p (OHM-CM)

Figure 4 1f COEFFICIENT VS RESISTIVITY

18

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 25: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

Material Inventory

Ingot Information - The ingot grown especially for this study

was grown in the Material Preparation Laboratory at our Lexington

facility The design goals for the ingot were

T = 1 is

= 2 x 105 cm2v-s

=j 5 x 1013 cm-3

x = 0185 peak = 15 i)

The slabs were indexed by their millimeter distance from the

seed end (see Figure 5) and every 20 mm a slab was extracted for

Hall measurements and slab parameters The results of this evalshy

uation are shown in Table I while Figures 6 and 7 are illustrations

of the samples used for Hall measurements and later for 4-contact

experiments Since the Hall samples were 25 im thin they could

be used as detectors and their noise spectra and detectivity inshy

formation noted Responsivity curves were made for many samples

and a typical response curve is shown in Figure 8 The slabs were

also thermal probed at 77 K for type n or p and Figure 9 summarizes

the thermal probe results

Noise spectra were taken for a large number of slabs and represhy

sentative results are shown in Figure 10 We see that the ingot

exhibited high 1f noise making it adequate for 1f noise studies0

19

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 26: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

SEED END

A

B

C

D

E

-

F

64 in

84 mm

104 mm

126 mm

143 144 mm

16 4 mm

H

183 184 mm

20

Figure 5 SLAB LOCATIONS

VTAIL END

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 27: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

TABLE I

1f MATERIAL INVENTORY FOR HALL DATA AT 77 0K

Slab Sample No t

(Pm)

S 125 E anneal 20

S 146 E anneal 17

S 126 3 940 2 940

S 143 4 920 3 920

2 920

S 164 2 850

S 152 5 25 4 25 3 25 2 25

p

(2 cm)

0420

0493

0181 46

00198 0577 166

0515

329 0495 00322

n

(cm3)

746 x 1014

102 x 1015

k22 x t014

k467 x 1014

209 x 1015 234 x 1014

262 x 1014

248 x 1014

160 x 1014 262 x 1014

954 x 1014 000217 553 x 1015

(cm2 Vs)

2 x 104

124 x 104

158 x 105 292 x 103

151 x 105 462 x 104 144 x 104

489 x 104

118 x 104 4083 x 104 204 x 105 520 x 105

Hall data partially n type and partially p type

21

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 28: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

Figure 6 HALL SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPH

22

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 29: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

010H - o

bull0385 cent

050 050

160

Figure 7 HALL SAMPLE DIMENSIONS

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 30: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

Relative Responsivity F 0N) co 0NC 0 0co CDN)

H

gt0

C)

0t 0

H

Ctu

H~ Ln

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 31: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

P 64

84NNtwo -pieces

N 143

104 half slab N 183

N126

Figure 9 THERMAL PROBE RESULTS

25

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 32: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

N) o 10-7_

-i=S127 S129 D6

A6 S145 No 8

10-8

C1J

U-)4

0 -

-i B

Oma D6

0-10 10I 102

I I LI II tI

10 3

Figure 10

I III I

104

Frequency (Hz)

REPRESENTATIVE NOISE SPECTRA

105 I I I I Il II

106

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 33: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

We see from the responsivity curve that peak is very close to 15 4m - the desired value However the purity and lifetime (plusmn 140 -200 ns) fall short of the design goals Attempts to improve n are

discussed in the section on annealing The ingot was adequate for single element 1f noise studies requiring 15-pm material however we found the material homogeneity to be poor This made comparishysons across a slab or between adjacent slabs difficult and this problem hampered our efforts throughout the program

Hi p Material - Toward the end of the program two high resisshytance slabs were obtained The Hall data for samples from slab 152 are listed in Table I while in Table II a summary of resistivity

peak and cut-off are given for all detectors fabricated from both slabs 144 and 152 We see that S 152 exhibits extremely high

p not only in the detectors but in the Hall data as well Resisshytivity as high as 329 S2-cm has been found for the fifth Hall samshy

ple with a carrier concentration of 16 x 1014 (one of the lowest seen at HRC)o However the peak response of these detectors ranges only from 10 4m to 125 pum Neverthel6ss this high resistance allowed us to study 1f noise in high resistivity material The results of this study are discussed in a subsequent section of

this report

Special Fabrication and Treatment Techniques

Bulk Treatment (Anneals) - The slab is annealed in a quartz ampule with a side arm filled with free mercury The slab is heated to some temperature for a time t(h) The mercury is at another temshyperature T2 to maintain a positive vapor pressure on the sample and

27

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 34: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

TABLE II HALL DATA

Slab Sample Resistance (t2) + - p(Im) co( tm)

152 A13

A12

All

AIO

A9 (PV)

A8

A7

557

356

239

474

334

328

34

507

302

238

538

538

278

34

90

10

10

10

11

11

125

10

11

11

11

115

13

145

144 B5

B7

B8

B9

D4

D5

D6

D7

107

132

188

248

23

122

132

122

12

11

105

10

12

12

11

10

145

13

118

114

145

145

139

128

28

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 35: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

reduce the diffusion of mercury to the slab surface Hence each

anneal can be characterized by a slab temperature (Ts) mercury

temperature (Thg) and time t

Honeywell has performed annealing experiments in the past on

8-14 pim (HgCd)Te material This work supported under the Air

Force Contract AF33(615)36F6 SA No I (6F-3421) Project No 4056

Task No 40562 concluded that annealing improved poor material

D BB in the 1f noise limited frequency range (1 kHz) Material

which already exhibited high performance showed little change

Anneal E which was considered the standard showed the best

results for converting material from p-type to n-type and for inshy

creasing electron density due to the diffusion of Hg into the slab

Upon cooling the Hg again diffuses out leaving an intrinsic layer

at the surface of the slab0 Two slabs (125 and 146) were put through

the standard E annealing cycle and Hall data was taken and is sumshy

marized in Table I Direct comparison of the E annealed sample

(S 125) with its adjacent unannealed slab (S 126) is impossible due

to the partially p-type nature of the Hall data of S 126 Direct

comparison of the Hall data of the other E annealed sample (S 146)

with its adjacent unannealed slab S 143 yields nothing conclusive

due to the material inhomogeneity This problem hampered our

annealing studies from the outset We shall deal with this problem

at a later point in the report

Surface Treatment (etches) - Assuming the 1f noise is due to

adsorbed molecules at the surface and their resulting surface states

29

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 36: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

it is a reasonable procedure to test this hypothesis using various

etches to change the surface properties For example the standard

proprietary etch may leave residual chemicals on the surface Reshy

moving these chemicals with a post etch or using a different etch

may give an entirely different 1f noise spectrum Of course the

adsorbed molecules may not be from the etch at all It may be

nitrogen or oxygen from the atmosphere Ambient gas cycle experishy

ments have been performed in which the 1f noise magnitude was

changed6

Assuming residual chemicals to be the cause of 1f noise the

following experiment was performed Slab 127 was fabricated into

vertical rows of detectors up to the etching step

Table III summarizes the etches considered for the experiment

Row B was etched as a control strip with the standard etch (No 1)

Row A was etched with the standard etch followed by a post etch of

HNO3 (HCl (No 2) Row C was etched with No 3 Data from Rows A

and B are summarized in Figures 11 and 12

TABLE III ETCHES CONSIDERED

Etches

1 Standard proprietary etch wash in methanol

2 Standard proprietary etch followed by HNO3 amp HCl 11 wash in methanol

3 HF HN03 Acetic Acid Citric Acid 134saturated

30

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 37: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

- R MF10 1 s0 - 3

S 1o

I deg

17 R 100 -IN 100 Q10

C 4

I

o 10 n s -5i-n 10 0 10Iii12

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dice

Bottom Top

Figure ii ROW ASTANDARD ETCH + HNO3 HC 11

31

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

Page 38: STUDY FOR ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF By Harris Halpert and

10 1

8

6

R MF itis IK 10 - 3

40

2

= 81

gt DB

0

100 100 10 -

4

Bottom

2

1 2 3 4

I I

)

5 6

DICE

7 8

I I

9 10 11

0I

i~ns

10 n 10

12

Top

5 - 5

Figure 12 ROW B STANDARD ETCH

32

In this experiment the figure of merit (MF) is used to evalshy

uate the noise performance of various detectors For background

limited performance (BLIP) the device must be g-r noise limited

The figure of merit (NF) is derived from the g-r noise to 1f noise

ratio normalized for frequency High MF represents a low 1f noise

component

- 4shyc1n

where

r = majority carrier lifetime

n = free carrier concentration

C = 1f noise constant

The figure of merit (MF) can be determined from the measured

1f and g-r noise voltages if they are at least five times greater

than Johnson noise A Johnson noise plus amplifier noise correction

can be made from the zero current noise figure

1

where

= noise voltage in the 1f noise frequency regionVI

noise voltage in the g-r noise frequency regionV2 =

33

There is little difference between the row profiles Etch No

3 did not remove (HgCd)Te at a detectable rate hence this row

could not be completed The slab is very inhomogeneous and prevents

us from noting anything conclusive about this experiment0 In Figure

12 detectors 7 and 8 show how lifetime and MF follow closely Cl

is unchanged but the 1f noise is masked by a rising g-r noise

plateau

Passivation Coating - In the process of making devices for the

dc field effect experiment the effects of evaporated ZnS coating

on the active area were investigated The detector D T MF and

Cl were measured before and after coating and no difference was

The coatings were 5 im thick and an indium electrode wasdetected

evaporated-on the ZnS thus forming a parallel plate capacitor struc-

The lack of change in D T MF and C assured us that theture

ZnS did not add surface states which could contribute to 1f noise0

Initial Experimentation

Wedge Experiment - The object of this experiment was to detershy

mine the effect of thickness on 1f noise The slab is assumed to

The slab and substrate were mountedbe uniform from left to right0

on a lapping plug at a slight angle by placing a thin strip of mylar

under one corner of the substrate The slab is processed in a wedge

shape so that there is a thickness gradient from left to right

Figure 13 is a cross-sectional view of the device If the bulk

resistance is much greater than the surface resistance the device

will show no resistance dependence on thickness

34

R-SURFACE

TW j t BULK = w t Rp

R Rti-

R Rs t + P

Figure 13 DEVICE CROSS-SECTION

the resistance will be entirely determined by the surface

R=R s

If the surface resistance is high then R = pt When noise

spectra are measured a constant current generator is used

V =iRC

i = constant

dv = dR dt dt R

R S +p Rt+p s

dRdRs + 1t dp

dR 2 d s dt dt (R t + 2)(Rt

35

Case lo

R = R or R ltlt Ps s

dR sdRs

dv dR - =- ij

Assuming the 1f noise is not caused by contacts this means

the surface is the major cause of resistance fluctuations and hence

1f noise0

Case 2

R = pt Rs gtgt pt

dR 1 dp

dt t dt

This shows that the resistance and noise voltage fluctuations will

both be thickness dependent

The resis-Table IV summarizes the data for this experiment0

tance seems to be constant over a wide range and independent of

thickness suggesting that it is surface conductivity dominated

However this is in direct contradiction to previous wedge experishy

ments performed at HRC on (HgCd)Te which proved that it is bulk

conductivity dominated It is suspected that the material inhomoshy

geneity was the cause of this different result

36

TABLE IV WEDGE EXPERIMENT

Slab 129

Device t (Rm) R (f2) MF

5115 227 x loshy325B6

137 25 x 10- 6 25C6

A6 137 117 x 10-5 20

x 10-6 137 8515D6

dc Field Effect - In the dc field effect experiment samples

of (HgCd)Te were covered with a thin layer of dielectric on which

was placed a metal electrode to complete a capacitor arrangement

(Figure 14) A voltage was applied to the metal electrode giving

an electric field perpendicular to the surface of the (HgCd)Te and

thereby changing the surface potential by drawing electrons to the

surface Changes in the surface potential can be monitored by

noticing differences in the conductivity of the sample These surshy

face potential changes would then be correlated with a change in 1f

noise voltage In the dc field effect experiment we would expect

to see changes in the sample conductivity which were related to the

long relaxation times of the slow surface states

This experiment was first performed with a 25 pam thick (HgCd)Te

sample with a 50 pm thick dielectric of mylar and an indium top

metal electrode When the metal top electrode was raised to 200

37

j+200VOTO

FIELD EFFECT CONTACT

TO AMPLIFIER DIELECTRIC AND DETECTOR BIAS CONTACTS

SUBSTRATE

77 OK (HgCd)Te

Figure 14 DC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

volts no change in conductivity or 1f noise voltage was noticed

To increase the transverse field the mylar was replaced with a

5 inm thick evaporated ZnS dielectric Although fields as high as

4 x 105 Vcm were attained with the ZnS dielectric still no change

in conductivity or 1f noise could be noted The results of this

experiment did not confirm the existence of slow surface states in

15 micron (HgCd)Te nor their relation to 1f noise

Magnetic Field Effect - In an attempt to change the surface of

(HgCd)Te samples the following qualitative experiment was pershy

formed A magnetic field was placed parallel to the surface of the

sample perpendicular to the bias current Holes and electrons are

thus driven to one of the surfaces depending on the field direction

as shown in Figure 15

Noise voltages vs bias current was plotted as a function of

magnetic field in Figure 16 and it was found that the 1f noise inshy

creased by a factor of 2 larger than that expected from magnetoshy

resistive effects The fact that driving carriers to the surface

of the sample affects 1f noise voltage suggests a possible relashy

tionship between the surface of 15 jim (HgCd)Te and 1f noise

Montgomery8 and Suh124 explained the magnetic field effect in terms

of the change in lifetime of carriers due to the fact that the reshy

combination of carriers occurs mainly near the surface and is proshy

portional to their density there However the theory does not exshy

plain the source of the conductivity modulations only the effect

of driving the current to the surface

39

0I

B Field

Flow of electrons Electrons and holes forced to surface

(HcjCd)Te sample

Bfield shy+ lKGauss

Figure 15 MAGNETIC FIELD EFFECT EXPERIMENT

24shy

20

S16shy

-1 K Gauss

l

+1 K Gauss

L2shy0 Gauss

_ -

0 0

Figure 16

5

MAGNETIC FIELD

I 10

Bias Current (mA)

EXPERIMENT - NOISE VOLTAGE (3

15e- (Hg Cd) Te77 K

15

kc) VS BIAS CURRENT

20

Later Experimentation

Four Contact Experiment - To find the contributions of the conshy

tacts to the 1f noise we have made use of the four-contact experishy

ment A four-contact sample (see Figure 17) is used which has two

current injecting contacts at the ends and two equally spaced voltshy

age sidearm probes This gives us three distinct segments two end

segments whichcontain bias contacts and one internal segment which

only contains bulk material

To insure the independence of the noise in each segment two

constraints must be satisfied0 First a constant current generator

insures that the noise voltage between probes is dependent only

upon resistance and carrier fluctuations between the two probes

Secondly the life path or distance carriers travel before recomshy

bining (Y = RrE where p= mobility 7 = carrier lifetime and E =

bias field) is made small to insure that carrier modulations in one

segment are not swept into an adjacent segment and measured as noise

in that region0 Thus the noise voltage of each segment is indeshy

pendent of adjacent segments If the end contacts are a source of

1f noise then we would expect V12 and V3 4 to be relatively larger

than V23 while if the source of 1f noise is the surface or bulk

we could expect all segments (including the internal segment V23 )

to be dependent upon some material parameter such as sample resisshy

tance

Figures 18 19 and 20 show the results of this experiment

where we have given the noise voltage at 100 Hz in relative units

42

II

ContactContact I IlfCo cContact Contact 4

2 3

Figure 17 FOUR CONTACT SAMPLE

F-shy1213 (1270)

-- = 3699

+ 1163 (1220)255i 5 628 (650)

1085 553 342 [ 489 1-----064 ----1136 sz

41

3 2

a) Forward Bias

Fshy1245 (1320)

3734 S2 1285 (1280) _ + 2586 n 658 - (708)

2224 0 shy

1120 608 362 - 1496 72 1090 --- 1145 Qshy

41

3 2 b) Reverse Bias

Figure 18 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 2 (SOLDERED END CONTACTS))

44

i25 (730)~~1875 a

3 (308)310 (726

85 II ----- 747 (726)

1679 Q 41 300 660

0791097 611 1

4t

3 2

a) Forward Bias

530(5) 1868 +203 (2 16 ) ___--_j

-- 7 9 9 I-518 15shy19 1667

35 209 510 194 M- 603 Q + 1061--

ttL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figurel9 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 3 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

45

1025 (1010)+ -- 2855 U

937 (970 2153 2 579 6 8 _ shy

H- 92 64I-1713 T7773 584 281

-- 1132 ----1013 f2---i---692 a-

4 LLt

3 2

a) Forward Bias

885 (1060) - 2876 n 0

902 (1030) + 21 637 (665 ) shy

1721 n

826 612 256 11335 732 --1023 il -- 696

4L LL 3 2

b) Reverse Bias

Figure20 RELATIVE 1f NOISE VOLTAGE AT 100 Hz AND RESISTANCE IN 4 CONTACT EXPERIMENT (SAMPLE NO 4 (TC BONDED CONTACTS))

46

on top and resistance along the sample below for each of the possible

combinations of segments Sample number 2 had soldered contacts

while samples 3 and 4 were TC bonded on indium pads

The noise voltage of multiple segments (ie 2 and 4 3 and 1

4 and 1) are close to the calculated vectorial sum of the noise

voltages in the single segments We have included the calculated

sums in parenthesis in Figures 18 to 20 only sample number 3 exshy

hibited a marked change (= 35) in 1f noise voltage when the bias

was reversed however the increase was uniform throughout the segshy

ment measurements and the noise still added vectorially

Noise voltages Vl2 V23 and V34 at 100 Hz for all samples

were plotted vs resistance (Figure 21) in the single segments which

are of uniform length and cross-sectional area Not only did the

internal contacts (noted by a circle) and external contacts of each

sample follow the same resistance dependence but that all three

samples followed the same resistance dependence regardless of conshy

tact type In all cases the 1f noise voltage was proportional

to resistance to the 17 power This suggests that if noise voltshy

age is independent of the contacts and is within the bulk or surface

of the material

Figure 22 shows full noise spectra for all single segments and

the full lengfh of four contact sample number 4 We see that alshy

though the voltage level varied with respect to single segment reshy

sistance to the 25 power the slope a showed little to no change

This suggests that only the magnitude and not the nature of the 1f

noise changes with resistivity

47

OO

1000

o 100

a)a P4 -

X Sample No 2

A Sample No 3

0 Sample No 4

I lI I I i10

10 100 1000 Relative Noise Voltage

Figure 21 RELATIVE NOISE VOLTAGE VS RESISTANCE IN SINGLE SEGMENT OF 4 CONTACT SAMPLES

4 7_ _ _ _

I

r rr l -shygn -

IN L1 9

If-shy 700K= C-- 4 7 9 1 0 2 1 4

Frequency

8 3

Figure 22 FULL NOISE SPECTRA FOR ALL SINGLE SEGMENTS AND THE FULL LENGTH

OF SAMPLE 4

- A study of the effect ofBackground Dependence of 1f Noise

background temperature on if was performed A special dewar was

prepared which had no window and allowed the detector a 180-degree

FOV into a black background The detector was always cooled to

77 K while data was taken for a background of 300 K and then 77 degK

Data was taken for three high performance detectors and one Hall

sample whose resistance at 77 degK and 295 K backgrounds are given

in Table V

TABLE V

HALL SAMPLE DATA

Resistance 295 Background 77 BackgroundSlab Sample

100 151144 B5

114 145144 D5

378 370149 D9

2899 4947127 HS4

The noiseThe resistance increased by 50 for sample B5

spectra for each detector at 77 K background and 295 degK background

are given in Figures 23 to 26 In each case the bias current was

kept constant in the experiment despite the increase in detector

resistance We see that only sample D5 of slab 144 showed any real

decrease in 1f noise level although the increased resistance at

lower background temperature for all the samples indicates an effecshy

tive lowering of the if noise coefficient Cl since (see PW Kruse

et al Elements of IR Technology13 p 255)

50

--- -- - --- --

----

-

-----0 --

TztZJplusmnzit __ __

1 I II1 T6 II - ____ -

--- t -I - - -4 ---9 --~--~ I--3

J+

I

- SiTe

4 5) ---

__--~ -IF_ - Frequenc i--

20 - 4aI 2

Frequency

4 D b 7 K S P C R F O SA PL NO 4 NO S

~3 i ur 23Ht~F

Sample B5 89 4 6 7 P 9 1

rr- - -

-shy 7

7 o

_ __ --- -- _ --- ---

T __I

Z l Mi II __t -Ii __

-I2 - I = c-

00zliAlK 2 3 - b 1 0KC 3 4 5

Frequency (11z)

Figure 24 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO B5

--

--

--

Sample D6

- - 9

-5

7

3 I -

71 L~LI shy- t -TiiiI 1J IL

I --

loom

--== shy

I _ L I

Ln91i--k - - +-

I

- i-V Lp - ----o shy

frequ nc (Liz)

Figure 25 N]OISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D6

Sample D9

1o I T 4qf(1n 9 14 5 6 7 I 2 7 3

-- 8-1il

F-

~ - -4 tshy

t t

3 ill 1 Ti 112

q -

t l

r rI +11 1 w I1 1111 11

I_ -14 tOR f

[M l 1 i U I -f 4 F

__ __ - IL

-7-

100

E- I V

P reqitency (Hz) F-gure 26 NOISE SPECTRA FOR SAMPLE NO D9

2 C12 p 12 (Af)1

V1f f12 (A)3 2

Any increase in p at constant bias without a corresponding inshy

crease in V1 f constitutes an effective lowering of the if coeffishy

cient Co

Sample D5 showed a slight increase in slope from 046 to 056

as the background temperature was lowered However the effect on

the 1f knee was minimal since the g-r level also lowered slightly

rthe lifetime was measured and found to remain constant within

experimental error at 100 nanoseconds0

BL Musicant has reported in private communication that cold

aperturing has decreased the 1f knee in one of his samples from

2400 to 360 cycles while increasing the lifetime from only 260 to

430 nanoseconds The resistance in his sample increased from 16 to

24 fl Such background dependent data suggests that cold aperturing

could at worst effectively lower CI and bias power consumption by

increasing device resistance

Relationship of Material Parameters and 1f Noise - H I

Andrews has plotted pvs n from available Hall data for many sampshy

les with peak wavelength response between 8-14 pLm He has found a

relation between pand n which suggests that pand n are not inshy

dependent parameters (Figure 27) In Figure 28 p vs n is plotted

for material used in our 15 pLm 1f study (We have also included

55

Date by HI Andrews 10 5m

1060

F 0 bull

S105

4

10

101 3 1014 115

n Carrier Concentration at 77 K (cm )

Figure 27 CARRIER CONCENTRATION VS p MOBILITY

56

106 1X p = 001

01 p =05 P p 005timesp

p =5 n 00cm

0 10

44 shy

3 10

161015 -31010141013

n - carrier concentration (cm at 77 0K

Hall data partially p-type

Figure 28 pVS n

57

some available data on other long wavelength slabs) Essentially

the same relationship exists between pand n although not as drashy

matic due to the smaller number of samples available Lines of

constant resistivity are included on both graphs We see that up

until about 05 ohm-cm pand n exhibit an almost linear relationshy

ship that is as the carrier concentration decreases the charge

mobility decreases also In Andrews data deviations from this

linear relationship are seen to occur after 05 ohmscm The data

points follow the 05 ohm-cm line so that the mobility still deshy

creases while the carrier concentration increases This is a very

interesting effect in that previous data by AN Kohn and LC White

has shown that the 1f noise coefficient Cl is proportional to p52

until p 04 ohm-cm When p gt 04 ohm-cm the 1f noise coefficient

cannot be correlated with resistivity We suspect that these tw6

phenomena are related

Andrews has also found a correlation between the Hall data points

and their position in the slab We have seen somewhat the same correshy

lation in that high n high pmaterial usually comes from the Hg rich

region at the bottom of the slab Hall data taken from samples proshy

gressively higher in the slab follow the curve of Figure 27 in that as

n is decreased p is also lowered until the turn around point of p =

05 ohm-cm The fact that resistance of detectors increases as we go

up in the slab has generally been found to be true for our samples

and is expected due to the fact that x the mole fraction of CdTe in

the material and along with it the bandgap and -co of the sample

is changing However samples have been found which have the same

58

co thickness and aspect ratio and yet the resistance differs by

a factor of 10 Compare for example the two detectors

Aspect

Slab Element Thickness Ratio 2peak co Resistance

127 B8 25 pm 1 145 im 165 pm 905 pound

Si C8 25 am 1 14 pm 16 4m 8 n (no 1f at ikc)

This seems to be an indication of the fact that some mechanism

increases the resistance of the samples The same mechanism which

increases this resistivity could also be the source of the 1f noise

and thus explain the resistivity dependence of C1 Since theories

to explain this increased resistivity with its associated change in

material parameters are possible including segregation of material

impurities it is of prime importance to ascertain the nature of

resistivity in (HgCd)Te and the relationship of material parameters

as a means for understanding and reducing 1f noise

High p Study

As discussed in a previous section 1f noise in some high reshy

sistance samples was studied The samples used in this study conshy

sisted of detectors and Hall samples and are listed in Table VI

along with their resistances sizes and wavelength Included in

this study were two Hall samples from slab 152 and detectors fabrishy

cated from the row adjacent to the Hall samples (row A) Two other

samples of interest were studied at the same time These are two

Hall samples which had undergone the E anneal after the normal

growth sequence These samples represented the only major excursions

from the linear relationship between pand n seen in Figure 28

59

TABLE VI HIGH RESISTANCE SAMPLES

Slab Sample +Resistance(2) -Resistance Bias(mA) -co(m)

144 B5 100 133 08 gt 145

152 A13 557 507 25 10

A12 356 306 05 11

All 239 238 05 11

A10 474 538 04 11

A9 334 538 03 115

A8 328 278 05 13

HS5 1217 1182 25

HS4 1218 1092 25

1 25Eanneal 731 735 25

146 958 961 25

149 D9 38 38 6 ii

All data at 77 K I

Noise spectra were taken for all samples at their optimum bias

for forward and reverse bias conditions Figures 29 to 36 are the

noise spectra for detectors while 37 to 40 are those of the Hall

samples where 39 and 40 are the E anneal spectra Although the

noise level for all detectors is high as expected from their high

resistivity only one sample (A12) showed a significant change in

1f noise level (a factor of 2) for different bias direction while

all others were within a factor of 15 The slope of the curves or

the value for a2 ranged from 038 to 077 with the majority of the

60

100

bD 4-3Forward

0

0

z

a0

Sample B5

Bias

Reverse Bias

14

-4

a

00

00

100 I I I I III I ____[1KG

__Il___

Frequency (Hz)

I 0K

I I o~I0K

I I I I I

Figure 29 SAMPLE B5 DATA

100

Forward Bias

bf o Reverse Bias

o 0

0 0

= -shy 62 Os

00

100 1KC 0 KC 100 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 30 SAMPLE D9 DATA

100

Sample A8

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

d

00 gta

0

z 10-I-00

535

S

0

100 I I l I I I I

1KC I I I I I I l

0 KC I I I I

000 KC

Frequency (Hz)

~Figure 31 SAMPLE A8 DATA

01

100 _ ___ _

ISample A9

e Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

bo a a

W 00

- 403

aa

0 z a) 010 - 2 48bull

Ca

I1 I III I11I I 1111I I 1111I11

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

10 KC 100 KC

Figure 32 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100=

bo

0a 582

0

0

Sample AlO

Forward Bias

Reverse Bias

0

4 10

CS

z aY47- a

gt 0 K0 10KC10 K

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Ln Figure 33 SAMPLE A10 DATA

100

0 0 47=

00

3968= Sample All

28 2 Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

(U 0

10

00

100 1 K 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 34 SAMPLE All DATA

100 0

O

0

a a

ci bo

gta d)570

0

_ Sample A12

- bull Forward Biai

-- o Reverse Bias

100 1 10 K 100 K

Frequency (Hz)

J Figure 35 SAMPLE A12 DATA

00 0

ioo

Sample A13

Forward Bias W

0 Reverse Bias

0

gt0

4) a 0

z ~j10

445

4 010 lt22

00 1KC I0 KC 00 KC

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36 SAMPLE A13 DATA

_-2 100

N5

a 5

0

0

gt

S152 HS4

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

I-I I 1111I1 I I 1I lIIII 1 1 I I11111I

100 1 KC 10 KC 100 KC Frequency (Hz)

Figure 37 SAMPLE S152 HS4 DATA

C

i0 5

bo

d)0

gt 0 10 O

-r4 0

a) S152 HS5 4

- Forward Bias

0 Reverse Bias

1

100 1 KC Frequency (Hz)

11 1 I

0 KC

I I I 1 i1

100 KG

Figure 38 SAMPLE S152 HS5 DATA

100

HS 125 (E anneal) Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

to 41oM0

a)a

4

0 0

100 1 KC1 C10K Frequency (Hiz)

HFigure 39 SAMPLE HS 125 (E ANNAL DATA

100

HS 146(E Anneal)

0 Forward Bias

bo Reverse Bias

0 gt

40z0 Ci

0 010

057

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 40 SAMPLE HS 146 (EANNEAL) DATA

well behaved curves being between 045 and 053 Samples A9 A10

All and Al2-exhibit what may be described as a turnover or rolloff

in either one or both bias directions The majority of the four

samples were found to be nonebmic (A9 was photovoltaic) and their

resistance differed greatly with direction We are uncertain at

the present time as to the nonehmic nature of these high resistivity

devices although we suspect that it arises from the difficulty of

contacting to high p material

Cl was calculated for each sample tested and plotted as a funcshy

tion of p on a p vs C1 graph as seen in Figure 41 All samples follow the

p52 curve well except for nonohmic samples A10 A12 This suggests that it

may be difficult to correlate C1 with p above 05 ohm-cm due to

nonohmic contacts which do not give a true value of the material

resistivity A resistance read as a factor of 5 higher than that

of bulk material would lower the calculated value for C1 by a factor

of 25 and drop all the data points above 05 ohm-cm into the Cl

vs p52 curve Also both E annealed samples showed a lower C1 than

expected although it is difficult by their position on the Cj-p

curve to determine to which part of the curve they belong0 V-I

curves showed them to be ohmic so that the region above 04 ohm-cm

on a plot of C1 vs o may be a mixture of nonohmic samples and ohmic

excursions from the pim vs TI graph More work needs to be done in

this area to understand the nature of high resistivity material and

its relation to if noise0

Noise spectra were taken at 0 bias for detectors A8 A9 and

101

OA

00

00 A

A

Ao 0_ 2

ZS A000 0 146

BA9

Zo

AoO A12Al

HS s4t

0-

Fiur 41O

I

VE2U

AOSCOSANT ALA

1ACNTATlC 0 HIGH POINTS OF INTEPEST 51

1o-20 II1I1 10121111I1II1I1I1 1

1o- 1 9 1o-18

1F NOISE

1o-l7

CONSTANT C

1o- 1 6 I

1o-15

Figure 41 RHO VERSUS 1f CONSTANT Ch

10iI

= 046 Sample AS 41 o 0 Bias

o Forward Biasia

0 Reverse Bias 0

00

U) ~Level

System Noise

1i I I1111II I I I lII I) I I I111III 100 1 k 10 k 100 k

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 42 SAMPLE A8 DATA

In

14

100

Sample A9 0 Bias

Forward Bias

o Reverse Bias

a 2

= 0455

boa)10

o

0 0

z

a) 0

System Noise Level

tI IIIIIII11t1 I I III11 I11 I I I I1

100 1 k 10 k 100 k Frequency (Hz)

Figure 43 SAMPLE A9 DATA

100

Sample AlO 0 Bias

e Reverse Bias

o Forward Bias

CO 4 lO

W 1

~ 0 z 0 C _

_ stem Noise Level

C S

=2 0448 0 -Le

1I I IIII I 11I I 111111I I I 1111I11

100 1 k 10k lo0k

Frequency Hz

Figure44 SAMPLE AI0 DATA

at a slope of = 045 is seen for all three samples The detectors

were replaced by equivalent carbon resistors and the 1f noise disshy

appeared indicating that it was truly detector noise We believe

that we see if noise at zero bias due to the high C1 of these

samples and their nonohmic nature which supplies an electric field

However the existence of this 1f noise at 0 bias suggests that

injecting current into a detector is not necessary to see 1f noise

SUMMARY

A summary of the results of this program may be outlined as

follows

a) The contacts of 15-micron (HgCd)Te are not a source

of if noise and although they may be nonobmic in

high resistivity material they still do not seem to

contribute to the 1f noise

b) The existence of slow surface states in (HgCd)Te and

their effect on if noise was not demonstrated alshy

though driving carriers to the surface through the

use of a magnetic field increased the 1f noise

c) Under standard test conditions the 1f noise coeffishy

cient in 15-micron (HgCd)Te is related to sample

resistivity when p lt 04 n-cm

d) The Hall mobility in 15-micron material has been

noted to be related to carrier concentration such

that high resistivity material has low carrier conshy

centration and low mobility This implies that

78

material parameters and 1f noise may be strongly

interrelated In fact the two excursions from the

PH vs q curve (e annealed samples) showed a lower

than expected if noise coefficient for sample reshy

sistance

e) 1f noise at 77 K was studied as a function of backshy

ground temperature and the noise voltage level was

found to remain constant although increased resistance

at lower background temperature effectively lowered

C1 o Cold shielded fields-of-view may therefore be

an effective way to increase detector resistivity as

well as performance

f) if noise was found at 0 bias current in nonohmic

material suggesting that 1f noise is not the result

of bias current injection

Problem Areas

The material inhomogeneity made comparisons across slabs and

between adjacent slabs difficult This hindered specifically the

etch and anneal studies This problem has been alleviated in that

the two curves PH vs n and Cl vs p may be used to characterize the

effects of various treatments on material parameters and 1f noise

Discussion

The establishment of a strong correlation between resistivity

material parameters and if noise coefficient brings into question

the nature of tbe material parameters of (HgCd)Te Although a

79

relationship between material parameters and 1f noise suggests that

the 1f noise may be a bulk phenomena the bulk parameters involved

can be affected by surface conditions Thus a relationship between

material parameters and 1f noise may merely be a manifestation of

surface effects At the present time an understanding of the nature

of the material parameters of (HgCd)Te and its relation to the surshy

face (especially the fast states) and 1f noise seems to be vital

to the ultimate reduction of 1f noise in (HgCd)Te

Areas of future study should include

a) The nature of the material parameters in (HgCd)Te

through the use of temperature dependent Hall data

correlated with 1f noise data

b) Slab anneals to further study excursions from the

n vs [H curve and their detective properties

Further studies of the nature of the surface specshyc)

ifically the density and characteristics of the fast

states and their relation to if noise

REFERENCES

1) Van der Ziel Physica 16 359 (1950)

2) Firle amp Winston J Applo Phys 26 716 (1955)

3) BV Rollin amp I Templeton Proc Phys Soc (London) B66

250 (1953)

4) FJ Hyde Proc Physo Soc (London) B69 242 (1956)

80

5) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

6) TO Maple L Bess and HoA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26 190

(1955)

7) L Bess amp LS Kisner J Appl Phys 37 3458 (1966)

8) HoC Montgomery Bell System Tech J 31 950 (1952)

9) J0 J Brophy and N Rastoker Phys Rev 100 754 (1955)

10) AoU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

11) TG Maple L Bess and HA Gebbie J Appl Phys 26

490 (1955)

12) JJ Brophy Phys Rev 111 1050 (1958)

13) P Kruse L McGlauchlin and R McQuiston Elements of

Infrared Technology Wiley and Sons New York 1962

14) AL McWharten Semiconductor Surface Physics RH Kingston

et al eds Philadelphia

15) L Bess Phys Rev 91 1569 (1953)

16) L Bess Phys Rev 103 72 (1956)

17) SoR Morrison Phys Rev 104 619 (1956)

18) 0 Jantsch Solid State Electron 11 267 (1968)

19) 0 Jantsch and I Feight Phys Rev Lett 23 912 (1969)

20) CT Sah and FH Hielseher Phys Rev Letts 17 956 (1966)

21) AU MacRae J Appl Phys 33 2570 (1962)

22) AU MacRae and H Levinstein Phys Rev 119 62 (1960)

23) AN Kohn amp JJ Schlickman (HgCd)Te Detector for 14-16

Micron Spectral Band (Confidential) Final Report NASA

Langley Research Center June 1968

24) H Suhl Bell Syst Tech J 32 647 (1953)

81

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