Influence of annealing conditions on impurity species in arsenic-doped HgCdTe grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Based on our previous work, the influence of annealing conditions on impurity species in in-situ arsenic (As)- doped Hg_1-xCd_xTe (x ≈ 0.3) grown by molecular beam epitaxy has been systematically investigated by modulated photoluminescence spectra. The results show that (i) the doped-As acting as undesirable shallow/deep levels in asgrown can be optimized under proper annealing conditions and the physical mechanism of the disadvantage of high activation temperature, commonly assumed to be more favourable for As activation, has been discussed as compared with the reports in the As-implanted HgCdTe epilayers (x ≈ 0.39), (ii) the density of V _Hg has an evident effect on the determination of bandgap (or composition) of epilayers and the excessive introduction of V_Hg will lead to a shortwavelength shift of epilayers, and (iii) the V_Hg prefers forming the V_Hg-As_Hg complex when the inactivated-As (As_Hg or related) coexists in a certain density, which makes it difficult to annihilate V_Hg in As-doped epilayers. As a result, the bandedge electronic structures of epilayers under different conditions have been drawn as a brief guideline for preparing extrinsic p-type epilayers or related devices.