Title: Nanoindentation features in HgCdTe heterostructures

Authors: F. Sizov, A. Richter, Ye. Bilevych, Z. Tsybrii, K. Kubica, R. Ries, Yu. Sidorov

Addresses: V. Lashkarev Institute of Semiconductor Physics, National Academy of Sciences, 41 pr. Nauki, Kiev 03028, Ukraine. ' Department of Engineering Science and Business Engineering, University of Applied Science, 1 Bahnhofstrasse, Wildau 15745, Germany. ' V. Lashkarev Institute of Semiconductor Physics, National Academy of Sciences, 41 pr. Nauki, Kiev 03028, Ukraine. ' V. Lashkarev Institute of Semiconductor Physics, National Academy of Sciences, 41 pr. Nauki, Kiev 03028, Ukraine. ' University of Applied Science, 1 Bahnhofstrasse, Wildau 15745, Germany. ' University of Applied Science, 1 Bahnhofstrasse, Wildau 15745, Germany. ' Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 13 pr. Lavrent'eva, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia

Abstract: Mercury-cadmium-telluride (MCT) epitaxial heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) were subjected to nanoindentation to reveal possible phase transitions in the vicinity of heteroboundaries. Nanoindentation load-displacement curves of MCT heterostructures grown by MBE on GaAs substrates with ZnTe/CdTe buffer layers displayed a peculiar |elbow| behaviour in the unloading part of the curve. MCT heterostructures grown by LPE show a |pop-out| effect in a similar curve. Both dependencies presumably are connected with phase structural transformation at CdTe, HgCdTe and CdZnTe.

Keywords: nanoindentation; MCT epitaxial layers; MBE; LPE; mercury-cadmium-telluride; liquid phase epitaxy; molecular beam epitaxy; phase transitions; heteroboundaries; heterostructures; nanotechnology; microphotoelectronic infrared devices; imaging arrays; dislocation defects.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2006.008726

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2006 Vol.3 No.1, pp.131 - 139

Published online: 18 Jan 2006 *

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