Impact ionization resonance and auger recombination in Hg<inf>1 - x</inf>Cd<inf>x</inf>Te (<tex>0.6 ≤ x ≤ 0.7</tex>)

The purpose of this paper is the study of the impact ionization and the Auger recombination in Hg1-xCdxTe avalanche photodiodes, with0.6 ≤ x ≤ 0.7. Forx ~ 0.7it is shown that the spin orbit splitting Δ is lower than the bandgap energy Egso that impact ionization is initiated by holes from the Split-off valence band. Forx ~ 0.6, Δ ~ Eg, the rate of the Auger recombination is maximum, corresponding to a resonant impact ionization and to a maximum ratiok = β / α and β are, respectively, the impact ionization coefficient for electrons and holes.