Reduction of surface recombination in n-type HgZnTe (x=0.16) crystal

A model of surface recombination velocity for n-type Hg1-xZnxTe is presente d. It has been shown that, both experimentally and theoretically, the surfa ce recombination velocity is dominated by Shockley-Read recombination mecha nism at higher temperature and dominated by Auger process at low temperatur e. We have further developed a surface recombination theory for the narrow- gap semiconductor. It is concluded that the optimum conditions to reduce re combination velocity is about 2 x 10(11) cm(-2) in the fixed charge density and the Cd0.8Zn0.2Te passivation layer thickness is between 140 and 160nm. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.