Experimental evaluation of impact ionization in dilute nitride GaInNAs diodes

The anomalous behavior of impact ionization in dilute-nitride GaInNAs photodiodes with a range of nitrogen content below 4% is investigated. The ratio of hole- and electron-initiated ionization coefficients, k = β/α, is enhanced by a factor up to ∼4 with increasing nitrogen content. The absolute ion...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2013-09, Vol.103 (10)
Main Authors: Tan, S. L., Soong, W. M., Green, J. E., Steer, M. J., Zhang, S., Tan, L. J. J., Ng, J. S., Marko, I. P., Sweeney, S. J., Adams, A. R., Allam, J., David, J. P. R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Breakdown
Dilution
Diodes
Electric potential
Heterojunction bipolar transistors
Ionization
Ionization coefficients
Voltage
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Summary:The anomalous behavior of impact ionization in dilute-nitride GaInNAs photodiodes with a range of nitrogen content below 4% is investigated. The ratio of hole- and electron-initiated ionization coefficients, k = β/α, is enhanced by a factor up to ∼4 with increasing nitrogen content. The absolute ionization coefficients are suppressed by up to two orders of magnitude at low electric fields in samples with 3% N. The narrow band gap, suppressed impact ionization, and increased breakdown voltage characteristics of GaInNAs make it a suitable material for use as part of a composite collector in GaAs-based heterojunction bipolar transistors.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4819846