Opto-electronic properties of the ternary alloy Hg1−xCdxTe

The theoretical electronic densities of states for both the valence and conduction bands are presented for the tetrahedral semiconductors CdTe, HgTe and their alloy Hg0.5Cd0.5Te based on band structures computed using the empirical pseudopotential method. For the ternary alloy HgCdTe, we have coupled the virtual crystal approximation with the pseudopotential method. Various quantities such as the energy levels, the refractive index and the transverse effective charge are calculated. The spin–orbit splitting is included in our calculations.