| Infrared (IR) and Ultraviolet (UV) light detectors have numerous applications including thermal imaging and chemical and biological spectroscopy. In this work, key aspects of HgCdTe and ZnO semiconductor materials are studied in accordance to their importance to state of the art IR and UV detector technologies.; The leading material technology for IR detectors today is the lattice matched HgCdTe alloy. The model for optical absorption in this material has not been reexamined after major improvements in HgCdTe material growth technology. Access to an accurate model for absorption coefficient of this material is important for understanding of detector behavior, where the degree of accuracy required continues to grow as detector structures continue to add complexity. In this work, the optical absorption coefficient of HgCdTe is studied in detail using theoretical bandstructure calculations, temperature dependent optical spectroscopy, and infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry. A new model for the optical absorption coefficient of this material as a function of composition and temperature is presented based on a proposed empirical relationship. A significant improvement in the prediction of photovoltaic detector spectral response is observed based on this proposed model.; ZnO is emerging as an important material for short wavelength optoelectronic devices, and may have a major impact on high-performance UV detectors. In this work, the steady-state and time-resolved response of ZnO photoconductors are studied. A sharp turn on is observed in the UV for these photodetectors, corresponding to the bandgap energy of 3.4eV for the ZnO material. Photoconductive decay transients show a fast (nanoseconds) and slow (milliseconds) time constant that are attributed to minority carrier relaxation and trapping processes, respectively. Persistent photoconductivity was observed, with time constant on the order of minutes, in response to both visible and UV excitation and is attributed to deep hole traps in the material. The trap density spectra are extracted from these transients based on a rate equation model, where the peak hole trap energies are found to be at 0.75 and 0.9 eV from the edge of the valence band for photoconductors with and without SiO2 passivation. |
