Ion Beam Nanostructuring of HgCdTe Ternary Compound

Systematic study of mercury cadmium telluride thin films subjected to the ion beam bombardment was carried out. The evolution of surface morphology of (111) Hg_1 - x Cd _x Te (x ~ 0.223) epilayers due to 100 keV B⁺ and Ag⁺ ion irradiation was studied by AFM and SEM methods. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction methods were used for the investigation of the chemical compound and structural properties of the surface and subsurface region. It was found that in the range of nanoscale, arrays of holes and mounds on Hg_0.777Cd_0.223Te (111) surface as well as the polycrystalline Hg_1 - x Cd _x Te cubic phase with alternative compound (x ~ 0.20) have been fabricated using 100 keV ion beam irradiation of the basic material. Charge transport investigation with non-stationary impedance spectroscopy method has shown that boron-implanted structures are characterized by capacity-type impedance whereas for silver-implanted structures, an inductive-type impedance (or "negative capacitance") is observed. A hybrid system, which integrates the nanostructured ternary compound (HgCdTe) with metal-oxide (Ag₂O) inclusions, was fabricated by Ag⁺ ion bombardment. The sensitivity of such metal-oxide-semiconductor hybrid structure for sub-THz radiation was detected with NEP ~ 4.5 × 10^-8 W/Hz^1/2at ν ≈ 140 GHz and 296 K without amplification.