Growth of Heteroepitaxial Lead Chalcogenide Infrared Detector Arrays on Fluoride Coveredsilicon Substrates

Abstract

AbstractComposition graded buffer layers of group Ila fluorides allow the heteroepitaxial growthof device quality narrow gap lead chalcogenides onto Si. Mechanical stresses in the layers are almost completely relaxed at room temperature despite large thermal expansion mismatches. Photovoltaic infrared sensors with up to about 9.5 um cut—off wavelengths and which operate at or near the 300K background noise limit have been fabricated in such PbTe and (Pb,Sn)Se on Si structures.Furthermore, epitaxial graded fluoride buffers seem to be suited to connect other semiconductors with even large lattice mismatches. Initial heteroepitaxial growth of CdTe on fluoride/Si(lll) substrates (mismatch 20%) supports such more general applications.