Damage threshold of HgCdTe induced by continuous-wave CO2 laser

We studied the interaction of p-type HgCdTe with a continuous-wave (cw) car bon dioxide (CO2) laser experimentally and theoretically and obtained an ap parent damage threshold temperature, 670-680 K, which corresponds to the te mperature of the solid-solid phase transition of HgCdTe. We proposed a two- dimensional thermal conducting model dealing with the thermal diffusion of cw laser processing of materials in this letter. The temperature distributi on during the interaction between HgCdTe and the cw CO2 laser is also prese nted and discussed. All the theoretical calculations are in good agreement with the experimental results. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S00 03-6951(99)00708-1].