Abstract

Digital alloy and random alloy Al_0.85Ga_0.15As_0.56 Sb_0.44 avalanche photodiodes (APDs) exhibit low excess noise, comparable to Si APDs. Consequently, this material is a promising multiplication layer candidate for separate absorption, charge, and multiplication structure APDs with high gain-bandwidth product. Characterization of the impact ionization coefficients of electrons (α) and holes (β) plays an important role in the simulation of avalanche photodiodes. The multiplication gain curves of eight p⁺-i-n⁺ and n⁺-i-p⁺ APDs covering a wide range of avalanche widths have been used to determine the electric field dependence of the impact ionization coefficients of Al_0.85Ga_0.15As_0.56Sb_0.44. A large impact ionization coefficient ratio between that of electrons to holes was seen across a wide electric field range. Simulations of the avalanche multiplication in these structures using a random path length (RPL) model gave good agreement with experimental results over almost three orders of magnitude, and a mixed injection method was employed to verify the extracted impact ionization coefficients. Interestingly, no difference in the impact ionization coefficients was seen between digital alloy and random alloy Al_0.85Ga_0.15As_0.56Sb_0.44. This knowledge of impact ionization coefficients is beneficial for the future utilization of the Al_xGa_1-xAs_ySb_1-y material system.

Simulation of Al_0.85Ga_0.15As_0.56Sb_0.44 avalanche photodiodes

J. D. Taylor-Mew, J. D. Petticrew, C. H. Tan, and J. S. Ng
Opt. Express 30(11) 17946-17952 (2022)

Very low excess noise Al_0.75Ga_0.25As_0.56Sb_0.44 avalanche photodiode

Xiao Jin, Harry I. J. Lewis, Xin Yi, Shiyu Xie, Baolai Liang, Qingyu Tian, Diana L. Huffaker, Chee Hing Tan, and John P. R. David
Opt. Express 31(20) 33141-33149 (2023)

Effects of carrier injection profile on low noise thin Al_0.85Ga_0.15As_0.56Sb_0.44 avalanche photodiodes

Lucas L.G. Pinel, Simon J. Dimler, Xinxin Zhou, Salman Abdullah, Shiyong Zhang, Chee Hing Tan, and Jo Shien Ng
Opt. Express 26(3) 3568-3576 (2018)

Characteristics of thin InAlAs digital alloy avalanche photodiodes

Wenyang Wang, Jinshan Yao, Jingyi Wang, Zhuo Deng, Zhiyang Xie, Jian Huang, Hong Lu, and Baile Chen
Opt. Lett. 46(16) 3841-3844 (2021)

Temperature dependence of the ionization coefficients of InAlAs and AlGaAs digital alloys

Yuan Yuan, Jiyuan Zheng, Yaohua Tan, Yiwei Peng, Ann-Kathryn Rockwell, Seth R. Bank, Avik Ghosh, and Joe C. Campbell
Photon. Res. 6(8) 794-799 (2018)