NOVEL TECHNIQUE FOR NON-DESTRUCTIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF II-VI IR MATERIALS

II-VI SEMICONDUCTORS BASED INFRARED DEVICE TECHNOLOGY IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT FOR MILITARY APPLICATIONS, ESPECIALLY IN RANGES OF 3-5 MICROMETERS AND 8-14 MICROMETERS WHICH CORRESPOND TO ATMOSPHERIC WINDOWS. IT HAS BEEN CONCLUSIVELY ESTABLISHED THAT PERFORMANCE OF THESE DEVICES DEPENDS CRITICALLY ON THE MICRO-STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY OF STARTING MATERIAL. HOWEVER, QUANTITATIVE STRUCTURE - PROPERTY RELATIONSHIP FOR THESE MATERIALS IS NOT ESTABLISHED. THIS SEVERELY LIMITS THE YIELD OF DEVICES. THE PROPOSED PROGRAM FOCUSES ON ESTABLISHING A QUANTITATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MICRO-STRUCTURAL AND ELECTRICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS MATERIAL. THIS WILL PROVIDE A UNIQUE QUALITY CONTROL TOOL TO IMPROVE THE DEVICE YIELD AND RELIABILITY. WE WANT TO USE NON-DESTRUCTIVE AND NON-INTRUSIVE ADVANCED X-RAY DIFFRACTION TECHNIQUE DARC (DIGITAL AUTOMATED ROCKING CURVE) X-RAY TOPOGRAPHY DEVELOPED AT BRIMROSE. THE EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH IS FIRST TO CHARACTERIZE II-VI SEMICONDUCTORS USING DARC AND THEN USING HALL MEASUREMENTS AND PHOTOLUMINESCENCE SPECTROSCOPY. USING THESE RESULTS WE WILL RELATE ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES TO MICROSTRUCTURE. UNLIKE CONVENTIONAL TOPOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES DARC PROVIDES QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION ABOUT LATTICE STRAINS ASSOCIATED WITH CHANGE IN LATTICE PARAMETER (BRAGG PEAK SHIFT) AS WELL AS DEFECTS (BRAGG PEAK BROADENING).