Numerical simulation of temperature dependent performance of InP-based tunnel junctions

Author

Affouda, Chaffra A. ; Lumb, Matthew P. ; Gonzalez, M. ; Yakes, Michael K. ; Bailey, Christopher G. ; Walters, R.J.

Author_Institution

Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

8-13 June 2014

Abstract

We report on temperature dependent current-voltage measurements of tunnel junctions lattice matched to InP at temperatures ranging from room temperature to 220 °C. Three different designs of tunnel junction were characterized, consisting of a bulk InAlGaAs tunnel diode with and without InAlAs cladding layers and a quantum well tunnel junction. Each device exhibited different temperature dependence in peak tunnel current. We use a non-local tunneling model, in conjunction with a numerical drift-diffusion solver, to explain the performance improvement available by using cladding layers or quantum wells around the junction region, and use the same model to explain the observed temperature dependence of the devices.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; claddings; diffusion; indium compounds; numerical analysis; semiconductor quantum wells; tunnel diodes; InP; cladding layers; drift-diffusion solver; nonlocal tunneling model; numerical simulation; quantum well tunnel junction; temperature dependent current-voltage measurements; tunnel diode; Junctions; Photovoltaic cells; Semiconductor process modeling; Temperature dependence; Temperature distribution; Temperature measurement; Tunneling; Poisson-Schrödinger; drift-diffusion; multi junction; non-local tunnelling; photovoltaic cells; tunnel junction;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 2014 IEEE 40th

Conference_Location

Denver, CO

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2014.6924958

Filename

6924958