Multiscale modeling of photon detectors from the infrared to the ultraviolet

Abstract

Due to the ever increasing complexity of novel semiconductor systems, it is essential to possess design tools and simulation strategies that include in the macroscopic device models the details of the microscopic physics and their dependence on the macroscopic (continuum) variables. Towards this end, we have developed robust multi-scale modeling capabilities that begin with modeling the intrinsic semiconductor properties. The models are fully capable of incorporating effects of substrate driven stress/strain and the material quality (dislocations and defects) on microscopic quantities such as the local transport coefficients and non-radiative recombination rate. Using this modeling approach we have extensively studied UV APD detectors and infrared focal plane arrays. Particular emphasis was placed on HgCdTe and InAsSb arrays incorporating photon trapping structures as well as two-color HgCdTe detectors arrays.