학술논문

High-performance solar-blind photodetectors based on Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/N heterostructures
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics IEEE J. Select. Topics Quantum Electron. Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of. 10(4):742-751 Aug, 2004
Subject
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Photonics and Electrooptics
Photodetectors
PIN photodiodes
Fabrication
Pulse measurements
Bandwidth
Microwave devices
Dark current
Leakage current
Current measurement
Photoconducting devices
Language
ISSN
1077-260X
1558-4542
Abstract
Design, fabrication, and characterization of high-performance Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/N-based photodetectors for solar-blind applications are reported. Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/N heterostructures were designed for Schottky, p-i-n, and metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodiodes. The solar-blind photodiode samples were fabricated using a microwave compatible fabrication process. The resulting devices exhibited extremely low dark currents. Below 3fA, leakage currents at 6-V reverse bias were measured on p-i-n samples. The excellent current-voltage (I--V) characteristics led to a detectivity performance of 4.9/spl times/10/sup 14/ cmHz/sup 1/2/W/sup -1/. The MSM devices exhibited photoconductive gain, while Schottky and p-i-n samples displayed 0.09 and 0.11 A/W peak responsivity values at 267 and 261 nm, respectively. A visible rejection of 2/spl times/10/sup 4/ was achieved with Schottky samples. High-speed measurements at 267 nm resulted in fast pulse responses with greater than gigahertz bandwidths. The fastest devices were MSM photodiodes with a maximum 3-dB bandwidth of 5.4 GHz.