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We have investigated commercially available photodiodes and also recent developed Sb-based phototransistors in order to compare their performances for applications to laser remote sensing. A custom-designed phototransistor in the 0.9- to 2.2-μm wavelength range has been developed at AstroPower and characterized at NASA Langley's Detector Characterization Laboratory. The phototransistor's performance greatly exceeds the previously reported results at this wavelength range in the literature. The detector testing included spectral response, dark current and noise measurements. Spectral response measurements were carried out to determine the responsivity at 2-μm wavelength at different bias voltages with fixed temperature; and different temperatures with fixed bias voltage. Current versus voltage characteristics were also recorded at different temperatures. Results show high responsivity of 2650 AIW corresponding to an internal gain of three orders of magnitude, and high detectivity (D*) of 3.9×10¹¹cm.Hz^1/2/W that is equivalent to a noise-equivalent-power of 4.6×10^-14W/Hz^1/2 (-4.0 V @ -20°C) with a light collecting area diameter of 200-μm. It appears that this recently developed 2-μm phototransistor's performances such as responsivity, detectivity, and gain are improved significantly as compared to the previously published APD and SAM APD using similar materials. These detectors are considered as phototransistors based-on their structures and performance characteristics and may have great potential for high sensitivity differential absorption lidar (DIAL) measurements of carbon dioxide and water vapor at 2.05-μm and 1.9-μm, respectively.

Tunneling currents and surface leakage currents are both contributors to the overall dark current which limits many semiconductor devices. Surface leakage current is generally controlled by applying a post-epitaxial passivation layer; however, surface passivation is often expensive and ineffective. Band-to-band and trap assisted tunneling currents cannot be controlled through surface passivants, thus an alternative means of control is necessary. Unipolar barriers, when appropriately applied to standard electronic device structures, can reduce the effects of both surface leakage and tunneling currents more easily and cost effectively than other methods, including surface passivation. Unipolar barriers are applied to the p-type region of a conventional, MBE grown, InAs based pn junction structures resulting in a reduction of surface leakage current. Placing the unipolar barrier in the n-type region of the device, has the added benefit of reducing trap assisted tunneling current as well as surface leakage currents. Conventional, InAspn junctions are shown to exhibit surface leakage current while unipolar barrier photodiodes show no detectable surface currents.

Incorporation of quantum dots into the p-n junction of the photovoltaic device provides numerous possibilities for nanoscale control of photoelectron processes via engineering the band structure and nanoscale potential profile. The band structure is determined by the size and shape of quantum dots and width of the wetting layer. The potential profile is formed by selective doping, which leads to the built-in dot charge. To study the effects of the band structure and nanoscale potential barriers on the photovoltaic performance we fabricated and investigated 3-μm base GaAs devices with various InAs quantum dot media and selective doping. All quantum dot devices show significant improvement in conversion efficiency in comparison with the reference cell. The data obtained have been analyzed in frame of the diode model. It was found that the two-diode model with the ideality factors of $n=1$ and $n=2$ well describes the scope of data. The essential $n=2$ component evidences that the Shockley-Read-Hall recombination plays a substantial role in recombination losses. Further optimization of solar cells should be aimed at the formation of potential profile with large barriers that separate quantum dot areas from high mobility conducting channels.

We have fabricated 32 × 32 SOI CMOS active pixel image sensor with pinned photodiode on handle wafer in order to reduce dark current, transfer charge completely, and improve spectral response. The four transistor type active pixel image sensor is comprised of reset and source follower transistors on SOI seed wafer, while the pinned photodiode, transfer gate, and floating diffusion are fabricated on SOI handle wafer. The pinned photodiode could be optimized because the process of the photodiode on SOI handle wafer is independent of the transistor process on SOI seed wafer. The optimized pinned photodiode is simulated in order to understand complete charge transfer at 3.3 V and 2.5 V of transfer gate voltage, respectively. We also investigated the optical response of fabricated active pixel image sensor under different illumination density conditions from He-Ne laser source at 3.3 V and 2.5 V of transfer gate voltage.

The much thicker intrinsic absorption layer (IAL) in normal-incidence Ge-on-Si photodetectors (NIPD) usually causes a contradiction between responsivity and bandwidth. In response to this issue, here, we simulate the design of an NIPD with geranium (Ge) layers based on a “fishnet” metasurface, leading to a reduced device thickness as thin as 380nm. The optical simulation results show that the light field can be perfectly localized in the 210nm IAL, and the absorptivity is as high as 99.45% at 1550nm, which is even better than bulk materials. Moreover, the electrical simulation results suggest that the horizontal size of the photosensitive region can be reduced to 11.2 $\mu$m, while the responsivity of the photodetector is close to 1 A/W at −1V bias voltage, which is nearly 23 times that of a bulk device with the same thickness, and the 3dB bandwidth is up to 40GHz, which can be compared with waveguide photodetectors. Besides, this device also demonstrates a high signal-to-noise ratio with a low dark current of 28.68 nA, making it an excellent PD for opto-electrical communication.

We have investigated commercially available photodiodes and also recent developed Sb-based phototransistors in order to compare their performances for applications to laser remote sensing. A custom-designed phototransistor in the 0.9- to 2.2-μm wavelength range has been developed at AstroPower and characterized at NASA Langley's Detector Characterization Laboratory. The phototransistor's performance greatly exceeds the previously reported results at this wavelength range in the literature. The detector testing included spectral response, dark current and noise measurements. Spectral response measurements were carried out to determine the responsivity at 2-μm wavelength at different bias voltages with fixed temperature; and different temperatures with fixed bias voltage. Current versus voltage characteristics were also recorded at different temperatures. Results show high responsivity of 2650 A/W corresponding to an internal gain of three orders of magnitude, and high detectivity (D*) of 3.9×10¹¹cm⋅Hz^½/W that is equivalent to a noise-equivalent-power of 4.6×10^-14W/Hz^½ (-4.0 V @ -20 °C) with a light collecting area diameter of 200-μm. It appears that this recently developed 2-μm phototransistor's performances such as responsivity, detectivity, and gain are improved significantly as compared to the previously published APD and SAM APD using similar materials. These detectors are considered as phototransistors based-on their structures and performance characteristics and may have great potential for high sensitivity differential absorption lidar (DIAL) measurements of carbon dioxide and water vapor at 2.05-μm and 1.9-μm, respectively.

Incorporation of quantum dots into the p-n junction of the photovoltaic device provides numerous possibilities for nanoscale control of photoelectron processes via engineering the band structure and nanoscale potential profile. The band structure is determined by the size and shape of quantum dots and width of the wetting layer. The potential profile is formed by selective doping, which leads to the built-in dot charge. To study the effects of the band structure and nanoscale potential barriers on the photovoltaic performance we fabricated and investigated 3–μbase GaAs devices with various InAs quantum dot media and selective doping. All quantum dot devices show significant improvement in conversion efficiency in comparison with the reference cell. The data obtained have been analyzed in frame of the diode model. It was found that the two-diode model with the ideality factors of n = 1 and n = 2 well describes the scope of data. The essential n = 2 component evidences that the Shockley-Read-Hall recombination plays a substantial role in recombination losses. Further optimization of solar cells should be aimed at the formation of potential profile with large barriers that separate quantum dot areas from high mobility conducting channels.