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Solar- and Visible-Blind AlGaN Photodetectors

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III-Nitride Ultraviolet Emitters

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Materials Science ((SSMATERIALS,volume 227))

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview on UV photodetectors based on the Al x Ga1−x N material system. After an introduction into the field of UV photodetection and material-related issues, the main physics, the operation principles, and characteristic parameters of the most popular photodetector device types will be briefly addressed including the photoconductor, the Schottky barrier diode, the metal–semiconductor–metal structure, the p-i-n diode, the avalanche detector as well as the phototube and the photomultiplier tube. Further, scientific results on Al x Ga1−x N-based photodetectors are compiled in order to illustrate the potential of the different photodetector device types for a wide range of UV applications. And finally, the state-of-the-art of commercially available photodetectors for UV detection and monitoring is discussed.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    VUV: vacuum UV.

  2. 2.

    The abbreviation PD will be used for photodetector and photodiode throughout the text.

  3. 3.

    Hg-lamps deliver the required intensities between 10−4 to 0.1 W cm−2, where UVC-LEDs with an output of 10−4 W cm−2 are commercially available but are still too weak for water disinfection.

  4. 4.

    This (\(\lambda\))-dependence will sometimes be omitted for the sake of clarity.

  5. 5.

    Data of \(\alpha_{\text{opt}}\) was either directly extracted from the literature (tabular: Si, GaAs, GaP [37] or plot-digitized: Si [35], SiC [39], diamond [42], GaAs [38], ZnO [40]) or calculated from the dielectric function (all digitized: diamond [43], AlGaN [41]).

  6. 6.

    A more detailed description of that type of PD will be given below.

  7. 7.

    Data for n and \(\kappa\) in this example are taken from [44] for Pt and have been derived from the dielectric function given in [41] for Al0.5Ga0.5N.

  8. 8.

    A more detailed description of that type of PD will be given below.

  9. 9.

    After (9.10) the responsivity drops by a factor of \(1/\sqrt 2\) at the bandwidth \(f_{\text{co}}\), which corresponds to a decrease in power level of −3 dB (~−1/2). Therefore, \(f_{\text{co}}\) is also called the 3 dB-bandwidth \(f_{{ 3 {\text{dB}}}}\).

  10. 10.

    D and L refer to minority carrier values, e.g., electrons with \(D_{n}\) and \(L_{n}\) in a p-type region of width \(w_{p}\).

  11. 11.

    The time constants \(\tau_{\text{growth}}\) and \(\tau_{\text{decay}}\) describe the corresponding change in signal as either an increase to \((1 - 1/e) \approx 64\,\%\) or a decrease to \(1/e \approx 37\,\%\) of the maximum signal.

  12. 12.

    Electrons are delivered by the ohmic contact.

  13. 13.

    Companies like: Kyosemi Corporation, Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., SANYO Electric Co. Ltd., General Electric Company, Cree Inc., and others.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, 12489, Berlin, Germany

    Moritz Brendel & Markus Weyers

  2. JENOPTIK Polymer Systems GmbH, Köpenicker Strasse 325b, 12555, Berlin, Germany

    Enrico Pertzsch, Vera Abrosimova & Torsten Trenkler

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  1. Institute of Solid state Physics, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Michael Kneissl

  2. Institute of Solid state Physics, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Jens Rass

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Brendel, M., Pertzsch, E., Abrosimova, V., Trenkler, T., Weyers, M. (2016). Solar- and Visible-Blind AlGaN Photodetectors. In: Kneissl, M., Rass, J. (eds) III-Nitride Ultraviolet Emitters. Springer Series in Materials Science, vol 227. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24100-5_9

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