Theory of the GaAs-doped p-i-n quantum well APD

Author

Brennan, Kevin F. ; Vetterling, William T.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. Eng. & Microelectron. Res Center, Georgia Inst. of Technol, Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

36

Issue

9

fYear

1989

fDate

9/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1597

Lastpage

1601

Abstract

A low-noise, high-gain, and high-bandwidth avalanche photodiode (APD) structure is described. The device is a variation of the p-i-n doped quantum well structure that is expected to show four orders of magnitude enhancement in the carrier ionization rates. In practice, p-i-n doped quantum well devices are difficult to realize owing to the difficulty in achieving highly doped n-type AlGaAs. A structure in which the doped layers are formed in GaAs rather than in AlGaAs, but in which the performance features of the doped AlGaAs devices are retained, is described. The device consists of repeated unit cells of an intrinsic Al _0.45Ga_0.55As layer followed by p-i-n-i doped GaAs layers. Calculations based on many-particle ensemble Monte Carlo simulation of the electron and hole ionization rates as a function of the device parameters are presented, illustrating the basic design criteria

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; avalanche photodiodes; gallium arsenide; p-i-n diodes; semiconductor device models; semiconductor quantum wells; APD; GaAs-doped p-i-n quantum well APD; carrier ionization rates; design criteria; doped GaAs layers; high-bandwidth avalanche photodiode; high-gain; intrinsic Al_0.45Ga_0.55As layer; low-noise; many-particle ensemble Monte Carlo simulation; p-i-n doped quantum well devices; p-i-n doped quantum well structure; Avalanche photodiodes; Charge carrier processes; Gallium arsenide; Ionization; P-n junctions; PIN photodiodes; Periodic structures; Quantum mechanics; Semiconductor device noise; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.34218

Filename

34218