Investigating the Far-IR Optical Properties of Hg_1-xCd_xSe Semiconductor Alloys

Far-IR reflectivity was used to analyze phonon modes and obtain dielectric functions of a series of Hg_1-xCd_xSe thin films deposited on both ZnTe/Si(112) and GaSb(112) substrates. The data were supplemented by ellipsometric scans in the mid-IR to visible range to assist in modeling the dielectric functions. The combination and simultaneous modeling of these data allowed the determination of not only the phonon and free-carrier activity but also the complex dielectric function over an extremely large range of energies.