Minority carrier lifetimes in undoped and Beryllium-doped Type-2 Ga-free, InAs/InAsSb strained layer superlattices (SLS) with energy gaps as low as 0.165 eV were determined from photoluminescence kinetics. The minority carrier lifetime of 450 ns at 77 K in the undoped SLS confirms a high material quality. In similarly-grown structures that were p-doped to N A = 6 × 1016 and 3 × 1017 cm−3, electron lifetimes of τ n = 45 ns and 8 ns were measured. The 6 × 1016 cm−3 doping level is a factor of 6 greater than the typical background doping level in long-wave infrared (LWIR) Ga-containing InAs/GaSb SLS with similar bandgap and electron lifetime. This suggests that LWIR photodetectors with InAs/InAsSb SLS absorbers can be designed with smaller minority carrier concentrations and diffusion dark current densities. A relatively slow decrease of the lifetime with doping suggests a minor role of Auger recombination in the studied Ga-free SLS at T = 77 K with p-doping up to mid-1017 cm−3 level.
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The work was supported by Army Research Office (Grants W911NF1110109 and W911NF1220057) and by National Science Foundation (Grant DMR1160843).
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Lin, Y., Wang, D., Donetsky, D. et al. Minority Carrier Lifetime in Beryllium-Doped InAs/InAsSb Strained Layer Superlattices. J. Electron. Mater. 43, 3184–3190 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-014-3239-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-014-3239-6