Design and performance of very high-speed In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As p-i-n photodiodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy

High-speed In0.53Ga0.47As/In0.52Al0.48As photodiodes have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on semi-insulating InP substrates and fabricated. The measured impulse response characteristics are very close to the analytically calculated ones. The temporal response to pulsed optical excitation is characterized by a rise time of 21 ps and a width (FWHM) of 27 ps. The 25 × 20-µm²diodes have a junction capacitance <0.1 pF, a dark current ∼1 nA, and a peak responsivity of 0.35 A/W. These characteristics are comparable or better than most epitaxial InGaAs photodiodes reported to date and make the devices suitable for a host of high-speed applications and monolithic integration.