Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy of High-Purity Germanium Diodes/Detectors

Abstract

Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) 5 has been applied for the first time to high-purity germanium p-i-n diodes. Using the correlator technique, 6 a large number of peaks due to acceptor levels in the forbidden band have been observed. The levels due to substitutional copper, to copper-hydrogen complexes and to divacancy-hydrogen defects have been positively identified. Several unknown levels have been discovered. The results obtained with DLTS are in excellent agreement with results from Hall-effect measurements. DLTS is the perfect tool to follow the creation and annealing of radiation defects.

Design guidelines for a highly efficient high-purity germanium (HPGe)-based double-heterojunction solar cell

“…Germanium (Ge) is a group IV indirect semiconductor like Si, but with a smaller bandgap of 0.66 eV and higher carrier mobilities at low temperature, which make it more attractive than Si for optoelectronic applications (Dalven, 1966;Debye and Conwell, 1954). It is worth noting here that relatively low-purity Ge (LPGe) crystals have so far been used in wave guide, infrared (IR) window fiber optics, IR night vision devices, space solar cells and as polymerization catalyst (Wada and Kimerling, 2015), whereas the HPGe crystals have the applications in the fabrication of nuclear and gamma ray detectors (Hansen and Haller, 1981;Haller et al, 1979Haller et al, , 1972Eberth and Simpson, 2008;Yang et al, 2012). However, a very few works have been performed on Ge as a solar cell (Sorianello et al, 2013).…”

Laplace DLTS investigation of transition metal-hydrogen complexes in germanium

“…Hydrogen in-turn is usually used to reduce the electrical activity of numerous defects eliminating recombination activity in Ge and Si. However a number of {TM, H n } complexes have been detected and reported using optical and electrical techniques [2][3][4][5]. The interaction of hydrogen with defects in semiconductors is still an active research area due to the fundamental and technological relevance.…”

Optical deep level transient spectroscopy of minority carrier traps in n-type high-purity germanium

“…These traps with typical concentrations in the 10 8 to 10 9 cm Ϫ3 range, correspond mainly to defects involving copper impurities. 2,3 As the traps mentioned represent majority carrier traps in p type, quantitative analysis using classical voltage-pulse DLTS is straightforward.…”

“…A light pulse instead of a bias reduction to change the charge state of the traps was already used by Haller et al 2 to illustrate the possibilities and the strength of DLTS for p-type HP germanium. In this investigation, one negative peak ͑minority carrier trap͒ appeared at 160 K beside a series of positive ͑copper related͒ peaks ͑majority carrier traps͒.…”