Modeling of the electrical characteristics of SWIR/MWIR InGaAs/GaAsSb type-II MQW photodiodes

This paper reports the results of modeling of the electrical characteristics of SWIR/MWIR p-i-n photodiodes with type II InGaAs/GaAsSb multiple quantum wells (MQWs) as the absorption region. Bulk based model with the effective band gap of the type-II quantum well structure has been used in modeling of the experimental data. We investigated the dark current contributing mechanisms that are limiting the electrical performance of the diode. The quantitative simulation of the I-V characteristics shows, that the 200K to 290K performance of InGaAs/GaAsSb photodiodes is dominated by generation-recombination processes at the small reverse bias (-5V similar to 0V). Above -10V, the trap-assisted tunneling current and direct tunneling current begin to dominate.