Dependence of minority carrier lifetime of Be-doped InAs/InAsSb type-II infrared superlattices on temperature and doping density

Abstract

We investigate the minority carrier lifetime of Be-doped InAs/InAsSb type-II superlattices as a function of doping density and temperature using time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) to determine if switching the superlattice type from the typical n-type residual carrier concentration to p-type may improve device performance by improving the lifetime–mobility product. The introduction of the Be dopant to the superlattice reduces the carrier lifetime, first by a factor of ∼3 for doping densities near or below the n-type residual carrier concentration, then by an order of magnitude for samples doped well above the residual carrier concentration. Further, the higher-doped p-type samples demonstrate two distinct TRPL decay regimes and two peaks in the PL spectra, suggesting the formation of an additional acceptor-related recombination pathway leading to the observed shorter carrier lifetime.