Abstract
An enhanced computer program has been applied to explain in detail the photon recycling effect which drastically limits the influence of radiative recombination on the performance of p-on-n HgCdTe heterostructure photodiodes. The computer program is based on a solution of the carrier transport equations, as well as the photon transport equations for semiconductor heterostructures. We distinguish photons in two energy ranges according to p + and n region with unequal band gaps. As a result, both the distribution of thermal carrier generation and recombination rates and spatial photon density distribution in photodiode structures have been obtained. The general conclusion, similar to our earlier work concerning 3-μm n-on-p HgCdTe heterostructure photodiodes, confirms the previous assertion by Humphreys that radiative recombination does not limit HgCdTe photodiode performance.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
P.V.C. Lopes, A.J. Syllaios, and M.C. Chen, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 8, 824 (1993).
A. Rogalski, Infrared Detectors, 2nd ed. (Boca Raton: CRC, 2010).
T. Elliott, N.T. Gordon, and A.M. White, Appl. Phys. Lett. 74, 2881 (1999).
J. Piotrowski, Opto-Electron. Rev. 12, 111 (2004).
R.G. Humphreys, Infrared Phys. 23, 171 (1983).
W. Van Roosbroeck and W. Shockley, Phys. Rev. 94, 1558 (1954).
R.G. Humphreys, Infrared Phys. 26, 337 (1986).
D. Mihalas and B. Weibel-Mihalas, Foundation of Radiation Hydrodynamics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984).
J.I. Castor, Lectures on Radiation Hydrodynamics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
K. Jóźwikowski, M. Kopytko, and A. Rogalski, Opt. Eng. 50, 061000 (2011).
J.S. Blakemore, Semiconductor Statistics (Oxford: Pergamon, 1962).
W.W. Anderson, Infrared Phys. 20, 363 (1980).
S. Rolland, Properties of Narrow Gap Cadmium-based Compounds, ed. P. Capper (London: Inspec, 1994), p. 80.
A. Rogalski, K. Adamiec, and J. Rutkowski, Narrow-Gap Semiconductor Photodiodes (Bellingham: SPIE, 2000).
T. Ashley and C.T. Elliott, Electron. Lett. 21, 451 (1985).
T. Ashley, C.T. Elliott, N.T. Gordon, J.J. Phillips, and R.S. Hall, Infrared Phys. Technol. 38, 145 (1997).
C.T. Elliot, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A 359, 567 (2001).
J.R. Lindle, W.W. Bewley, I. Vurgaftman, C.S. Kim, J.R. Meyer, J.L. Johnson, M.L. Thomas, E.C. Piquette, and W.E. Tennant, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 41, 227 (2005).
Acknowledgements
This work was undertaken and completed with the financial support of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education as Research Project No. PBZ M. Sz. W. 02/I/2007 and European Project No. POIG.01.03.01-14-016/08 “New Photonic Materials and Their Advanced Application.”
Open Access
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
About this article
Cite this article
Jóźwikowski, K., Kopytko, M. & Rogalski, A. Numerical Estimations of Carrier Generation–Recombination Processes and the Photon Recycling Effect in HgCdTe Heterostructure Photodiodes. J. Electron. Mater. 41, 2766–2774 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-012-2093-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-012-2093-7