Strain-relaxed, high-speed In 0.2Ga 0.8As MQW p-i-n photodetectors grown by MBE

Abstract

We have fabricated p-i-n photodetectors with 10, 15 and 20 well In 0.2Ga 0.8As/GaAs multiple quantum wells (MQWs) in the intrinsic region, whose bandwidths exceed 23 GHz. Cathodoluminescence (CL) images are characterized by rectangular grids, indicating strain relaxation through the formation of misfit dislocations. The MQW photoluminescence (PL) is strongly affected by the junction electric field, but PL from the p ++ GaAs cap shows that increasing the number of QWs enhances the non-radiative recombination associated with the misfit dislocation network. Infrared absorption measurements reveal sharp, room temperature excitonic absorption at 980 nm, which shifts to 1000 nm with a 6 V reverse bias. The peak excitonic absorption intensity and linewidth improve as the number of wells increases. Room temperature dark current measurements on 250 μm x 250 μm p-i-n photodetectors yield leakage currents as low as 2.5 nA for a reverse bias of 4.4 V. These results demonstrate the usefulness the usefulness of strain-relaxed InGaAs/GaAs MQW photodetectors for high speed applications.