SIMS CHARACTERIZATION OF HGCDTE AND RELATED II-VI COMPOUNDS

The production of consistent high purity materials is critical for imp rovement in performance and sensitivity of II-VI photovoltaic and phot oconductive devices. Information regarding the energy band structure a nd impurity or defect levels present in the material is essential to u nderstand and enhance the performance of current detectors along with the development of future novel devices. Secondary ion mass spectromet ry (SIMS) is capable of providing information of purity, junction dept hs, dopant distribution, and stoichiometry in the material. SIMS techn iques can achieve high detection sensitivities in very small analytica l volumes and for a wide range of elements (almost the entire periodic table). SIMS analysis also provides unique capabilities for localizing atomic distribution in two and three dimensions. Ion images can be ob tained by registering the positions of mass selected ions formed in th e sputtering process. The combination of excellent detection sensitivi ty, high mass resolution, depth profiling capability, and high resolut ion image acquisition on a wide spectrum of elements by a SIMS instrum ent is not matched by any other instrumentation technique.