Breakdown characteristics of deep-ultraviolet Al0.6Ga0.4N p-i-n avalanche photodiodes

Jeong, Hoon; Cho, Minkyu; Xu, Zhiyu; Mehnke, Frank; Bakhtiary-Noodeh, Marzieh; Detchprohm, Theeradetch; Shen, Shyh-Chiang; Otte, Nepomuk; Dupuis, Russell D.

doi:10.1063/5.0073515

Breakdown characteristics of deep-ultraviolet Al_0.6Ga_0.4N p-i-n avalanche photodiodes

Journal Article · Tue Mar 08 23:00:00 EST 2022 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0073515· OSTI ID:1978992

^[1]; Cho, Minkyu ^[2]; Xu, Zhiyu ^[2]; ^[2]; Bakhtiary-Noodeh, Marzieh ^[2]; Detchprohm, Theeradetch ^[2]; Shen, Shyh-Chiang ^[2]; Otte, Nepomuk ^[2]; ^[2]

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)

A top-illuminated deep-ultraviolet Al_0.6Ga_0.4N p-i-n avalanche photodiode (APD) structure was designed and grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on an AlN bulk substrate and on two different quality AlN/sapphire templates, and APDs were fabricated and tested. The APD devices with a circular diameter of 20 μm have demonstrated a distinctive reverse-bias breakdown behavior. The reverse breakdown voltage of the APDs is approximately -140 V, which corresponds to a breakdown electric field of 6–6.2 MV/cm for the Al_0.6Ga_0.4N material as estimated by Silvaco TCAD simulation. The APDs grown on the AlN bulk substrate show the lowest leakage current density of < 1 × 10^-8 A/cm² (at low reverse bias) compared to that of the devices grown on the AlN templates. From the photocurrent measurement, a maximum gain (current limited) of 1.2 × 10⁴ is calculated. The average temperature coefficients of the breakdown voltage are negative for APD devices fabricated from both the AlN bulk substrate and the AlN templates, but these data show that the coefficient is the least negative for the APD devices grown on the low-dislocation-density AlN bulk substrate.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); Army Research Office (ARO); Steve W. Chaddick Endowed Chair; National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0019133

OSTI ID:: 1978992

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1854032

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 131; ISSN 0021-8979

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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