Surface Recombination and Space-Charge-Limited Photocurrent-Voltage (PC-V) Measurements in (Cd,Mn)Te Samples–Kinetics of Photocurrent (PC)

Photocurrent-voltage characteristic (PC-V) is a method of determining the critical parameter in X-ray and gamma-ray detector plates, i.e., the carrier mobility-lifetime product, μτ. We show for the (Cd,Mn)Te samples that the measurement results depend strongly on the surface treatment and the space charge distribution. The PC-V characteristics obtained for ħω > E(g) and ħω ~ E(g) indicated that etching with 20% HCl caused an appearance of a significant concentration of very shallow surface traps at the (Cd,Mn)Te sample surface. These traps seriously changed the results of measurements of PC-V characteristics and PC kinetics. We also noticed a small contribution of holes to photoconductivity in the PC kinetics. The measurements of PC-V characteristics for ħω > E(g) may test the detector plate surface quality.