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c0
,
n
(1.1)
c
.
(1.2)
E = h =
(1.3)
1,240
0
(1.4)
(1.5)
h
.
(1.6)
The wave number k is the magnitude of the wave vector k, which denes
the direction of the motion of the photon:
k=
2
.
(1.7)
(1.8)
Indirect semiconductor
E
CB
CB
Eg
Eg+Ep
Eg
EgEp
h2
h
h1
0
0
k
VB
VB
k0
Fig. 1.1. Electron transitions in direct (left) and indirect (right) semiconductors
as, for instance, GaAs and Si, respectively
hc
= Eg Ep .
(1.9)
The generation of a phonon possesses a larger probability than the consumption of a phonon in connection with an electron transition in an indirect
semiconductor. Therefore, more photons will have the energy Eg Ep than
Eg + Ep . From quantum mechanics it is, however, known that the probability
of all electron transitions combined with phonon transitions is very small. The
probability of radiative transitions in indirect semiconductors in fact is four
to six orders of magnitude lower than that in direct semiconductors. Silicon
devices, therefore, are usually very poor light emitters. This work will summarize the attempts to obtain more ecient silicon light emitters and it will,
of course, focus on silicon photodectors.
1000
Si
Ge
GaAs
InP
6H-SiC
In0.53Ga0.47As
100
10
1
0.1
0.01
0.001
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
Wavelength (m)
1.4
1.6
1.8
(1.10)
The optical absorption coecients for the most important semiconductor materials are compared in Fig. 1.2. The absorption coecients strongly
depend on the wavelength of the light. For wavelengths shorter than c ,
which corresponds to the bandgap energy (c = hc0 /Eg ), the absorption
coecients increase rapidly according to the so-called fundamental absorption. The steepness of the onset of absorption depends on the kind of band
band transition. This steepness is large for direct bandband transitions as
in GaAs (Egdir = 1.42 eV at 300 K), in InP (Egdir = 1.35 eV at 300 K), in Ge
(Egdir = 0.81 eV at 300 K), and in In0.53 Ga0.47 As (Egdir = 0.75 eV at 300 K).
For Si (Egind = 1.12 eV at 300 K), for Ge (Egind = 0.67 eV at 300 K), and for the
wide bandgap material 6HSiC (Egind = 3.03 eV at 300 K) the steepness of the
onset of absorption is small.
In0.53 Ga0.47 As and Ge cover the widest wavelength range including the
wavelengths 1.3 and 1.54 m which are used for long distance optical data
transmission via optical bers. The absorption coecients of GaAs and InP
are high in the visible spectrum (400700 nm). Silicon detectors are also
appropriate for the visible and near infrared spectral range. The absorption
coecient of Si, however, is one to two orders of magnitude lower than that of
Table 1.1. Absorption coecients of silicon and intensity factors I0 (ehp cm3
means electronhole pairs per cm3 ) for several important wavelengths for a constant
photon ux density of = I0 / = 1.58 1018 photons/cm2
Wavelength
(nm)
(m1 )
I0
(ehp cm3 )
980
850
780
680
635
565
465
430
0.0065
0.06
0.12
0.24
0.38
0.73
3.6
5.7
1.03 1020
9.50 1020
1.89 1021
3.79 1021
6.00 1021
1.16 1022
5.72 1022
9.00 1022
1.4 Photogeneration
The LambertBeer law can be formulated for the optical power P analogously
to (1.10):
P (
y ) = P0 exp(
y ).
(1.11)
Popt
R. Popt
P0 Popt
P
Semiconductor
P0 exp(y)
nSC
y
Fig. 1.3. Reection at a semiconductor surface and decay of the optical power in
opt )
the semiconductor (P0 = (1 R)P
P (
y ) P (
y +
y) 1
.
y
Ah
(1.12)
In this equation, A is the area of the cross section for the light incidence and
h is the photon energy. For
y 0, we can write (P (
y ) P (
y +
y ))/
y=
dP (
y )/d
y . From (1.11), dP (
y )/d
y = P (
y ) then follows and the generation
rate is
G(
y) =
P0
exp(
y ).
Ah
(1.13)
n
s = 1.00) and the semiconductor n
sc (e.g., Si, n
sc 3.5). The reectivity R
of an
depends on the index of refraction n
sc and on the extinction coecient
absorbing medium, for which the dielectric function = 1 + i
2 = (
nsc + i
)2
is valid (
ns = 1) [2].
sc )2 +
2
= (1 n
R
.
(1 + n
sc )2 +
2
(1.14)
Popt
R . Popt
nARC
dARC
nSC
Semiconductor
.
0
(1.15)
o = 1 R.
(1.16)
0
.
4
nARC
sn
sc .
n
ARC = n
(1.17)
(1.18)
(1.19)
Responsivity (A/W)
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
Wavelength (m)
Fig. 1.5. Responsivity of an ideal photodetector with a quantum eciency = 1 versus wavelength (c = 1.8 m). The responsivity of real detectors possesses smaller
values
0 A
q0
Iph
=
,
=
Popt
hc
1.243 W
(1.20)
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