Effect of Interface-Related Deep Levels on high Sensitivity of Schottky Diode Photodetector Based on Ultrathin InGaAs Film on Si

Abstract

Recently, the Fermi level has been demonstrated to be pinned in GaAs semiinsulating ultrathin (<100 A) films grown at low temperatures [1]. This allows one to construct a detector with “internal” photocurrent amplification. The amplification effect compensates losses in sensitivity due to the small width of light-sensitive layer which absorbs 10 — 50 % of incident radiation. We fabricate photodetector structures with external quantum efficiency more than 1 for visible region. Photogenerated carriers in the GaAs layer are effectively separated by the built-in electric fields formed by the Schottky barrier and by the charge at the GaAs/Si interface. In this work, we show the relationships between spectral sensitivity of the metal-InGaAs/Si structures and In content. We observed the red shift in the photocurrent spectra with increasing In concentration, although photosensitivity of such structures dropped drastically. This shift demonstrates that the thin InGaAs film is actually responsible for photosensitivity. Despite the low photoluminescence intensity, the lowtemperature PL spectra indicate that band gap decreases with indium flux rising during MEE growth. The surprise was that the decrease of the film thickness caused the increase of photosensitivity. The GaAs(20 A)-InGaAs (20 A)/Si structure was the most sensitive one. We also observed high quantum efficiency in near-UV region (up to 0.8). We determined activation energy of elctron and hole traps and their concentration profiles by DLTS. The centers localized on interface between polar and nonpolar semiconductors are responsible for Fermi-level pinning in III-V semiinsulating materials and act as an electron trap with activation energy 0.59 eV. The origin of deep levels is discussed.