The liquid-phase epitaxial HgCdTe film surface oxidative characterization h
as been studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). HgCdTe surface e
xposed by various processing steps has been measured and analyzed. The resu
lts show that the native oxide film can be reduced and eliminated by the so
lution of lactic acid in glycol after etching by bromine in absolute alcoho
l. This indicates that the pre-treatment before HgCdTe surface passivation
affects the passivant/HgCdTe interface properties.