Electrical modeling of InAs/GaSb superlattice mid-wavelength infrared pin photodiode to analyze experimental dark current characteristics

Dark current characteristics of 7 Monolayers (ML) InAs/ 4 ML GaSb SL pin photodiodes are simulated using ATLAS software. Using appropriate models and material parameters, we obtain good agreement between the simulated and the experimental dark current curves of photodiodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The n-type non-intentionally-doped (nid) SL samples exhibit a dependence of the lifetime with temperature following the T-1/2 law, signature of Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) Generation-Recombination current. We also studied the dependence of the dark current with the absorber doping level. It appears that the absorber doping level must not exceed a value of 2 x 10(15) cm(-3), above this value the dark current is increasing with increased doping level. However for this doping value, a dark current as low as 5 x 10(-9) A/cm(2), at 50 mV reverse bias at 77 K can be obtained. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.