Numerical study of currents and fields in a photoconductive detector

A numerical study of the current, field, and carrier density distributions within a photoconductive detector is presented. The photodetector, an interdigitated Schottky barrier diode, is made with metallic fingers of alternating voltage bias on a thin semiconductor layer grown on a transparent diele...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of quantum electronics 1987-07, Vol.23 (7), p.1185-1192
Main Author: Peterson, R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Charge carrier density
Detectors
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Optical pulses
Optoelectronic devices
Photoconductivity
Photodetectors
Schottky barriers
Schottky diodes
Semiconductor diodes
Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices
Steady-state
Voltage
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Summary:A numerical study of the current, field, and carrier density distributions within a photoconductive detector is presented. The photodetector, an interdigitated Schottky barrier diode, is made with metallic fingers of alternating voltage bias on a thin semiconductor layer grown on a transparent dielectric substrate. The Poisson and continuity equations for electrons and holes are treated in two dimensions. A modified successive line overrelaxation method, faster than the capacitance matrix method, is developed as the Poisson solver. A simple alternative to the Scharfetter-Gummel treatment of current density is also introduced. We investigate steady-state cases with and without optical illumination, and transient responses to picosecond optical pulses. The steady-state current Shows near saturation with increasing voltage, as observed experimentally. The calculated typical response of a silicon detector to a picosecond optical pulse is a current pulse lasting on the order of 10 ps.
ISSN:0018-9197
1558-1713
DOI:10.1109/JQE.1987.1073488