In-situ evaluation of the anodic oxide growth on CdxHg1-xTe (MCT) using ellipsometry and second harmonic generation

In-situ measurements of ellipsometry and second harmonic generation (SHG) were carried out to monitor the electrochemical growth of native anodic oxide films on Hg1−xCdxTe (MCT). Growth of the anodic oxide was performed using two different methods viz., by linear sweep voltammetry and by applying a constant current density. The influence of scan rate and the magnitude of the applied current density on the properties of the growing films were examined. From the ellipsometry data, we have shown that the measured refractive index value of 2.19 for the oxide film remains unchanged for moderate and high oxide growth rates. Only at very slow growth rates were significant increases in the refractive index observed (n=2.4), indicating an increase in the compactness of the layer. For film thicknesses in excess of ∼1200 Å, a non-zero value for the extinction coefficient was found, indicating the incorporation of HgTe particles within the anodic oxide film. SHG rotational anisotropy measurements, performed on the MCT with and without an anodic oxide film showed only the four-fold symmetry associated with the MCT and so confirmed that the oxide was centrosymmetric. However, an increase in the SH intensity was observed in the presence of the oxide and this has been attributed to multiple reflections in the thin oxide film and also to the increase in the χ(2) non-linear susceptibility tensor as a result of charge accumulation at the MCT/anodic oxide interface