Future of AlxGa1-xN Materials and Device Technology for Ultraviolet Photodetectors

TLDR: In this paper, the authors compared the performance of the p-i-n photodiodes with different widths for the depletion region, which shows a trade-off between speed and responsivity of the devices.

Abstract: Thanks to advances in the quality of wide bandgap AlxGa1-xN semiconductors, these materials have emerged as the most promising approach for the realization of photon detectors operating in the near ultraviolet from 200 to 365 nm. This has in turn spurred the need for such devices in an increasing number of applications ranging from water purification to early missile threat warning systems. Nevertheless, the control of the material quality and doping, and the device technology remain tremendous challenges in the quest for the realization of high performance photodetectors. Design of the photodetector structure is one of the key issues in obtaining high performance devices; especially the thickness of the intrinsic region for p-i-n photodiodes is a crucial value and needs to be optimized. We compare the performance of the p-i-n photodiodes with different widths for the depletion region, which shows a trade-off between speed and responsivity of the devices. Furthermore, another challenge at present is the realization of low resistivity wide bandgap p-type AlxGa1-xN semiconductors. We present here recent advances and propose future research efforts in the enhancement of the AlxGa1-xN p-type conductivity through the use of polarization fields in AlxGa1-xN/GaN superlattice structures.