Browsing by Subject "Diodes, Schottky-barrier."

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Open Access
A1GaN UV photodetectors : from micro to nano
(2011) Bütün, Serkan
The absorption edge of AlGaN based alloys can be tuned from deep UV to near UV by changing the composition. This enables the use of the material in various technological applications such as military, environmental monitoring and biological imaging. In this thesis, we proposed and demonstrated various UV photodetectors for different purposes. The multi-band photodetectors have the unique ability to sense the UV spectrum in different portions at the same time. We demonstrated monolithically integrated dual and four-band photodetectors with multi layer structures grown on sapphire. This was achieved through epitaxial growth of multi AlGaN layers with decreasing Al content. We suggested two different device architectures. First one has separate filter and active layers, whereas the second one has all active layers which are used as filter layers as well. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) values for the dual band photodetector was 11 and 22 nm with more than three orders of magnitude inter-band rejection ratio. The self-filtering four band photodetector has FWHMs of 18, 17, 22 and 9 nm from longer to shorter bands. Whereas photodetector with separate filter layers has FWHMs of 8, 12, 11 and 8 nm, from longer to shorter bands. The overall inter-band rejection ration was increased from about one to two of magnitude after incorporating the passive filter layers. The plasmonic enhancement of photonic devices has attracted much attention for the past decade. However, there is not much research that has been conducted in UV region. In the second part of this thesis, we fabricated nanostructures on GaN based photodetectors and improved the responsivity of the device. We have fabricated Al nano-particles on sapphire with e-beam lithography. We characterized their response via spectral extinction measurements. We integrated these particles with GaN photodetectors and had enhancement of %50 at the plasmonic resonance of the nano-particles. Secondly, we have fabricated sub-wavelength photodetectors on GaN coupled with linear gratings. We had 8 fold enhancement in the responsivity at the plasmonic resonance frequency of the grating at normal incidence. Numerical simulations revealed that both surface plasmons and the unbound leaky surface waves played a role in the enhancement. We, finally, conducted basic research on the current transport mechanisms in Schottky barriers of AlGaN based materials. Experiments revealed that the tunneling current plays a major role in current transport. In addition incorporation, of a thin insulator between metalsemiconductor interface reduces the undesired surface states thereby improving the device performance.
Open Access
AlxGa1-xN based solar blind Schottky photodiodes
(2004) Tut, Turgut
Photodetectors are essential components of optoelectronic integrated circuits and fiber optic communication systems. AlxGa1−xN is a promising material for optoelectronics and electronics. Applications include blue and green LEDs, blue laser diodes, high power-high frequency electronics, and UV photodetectors. Photodetectors that operate only in the λ < 280 nm spectrum are called solarblind detectors due to their blindness to solar radiation within the atmosphere. In this thesis, we present our efforts for the design, fabrication and characterization of Al0.38Ga62N/GaN based solar blind Schottky photodiodes. We obtained very low dark current, high quantum efficiency, high detectivity performance. Under 25 V reverse bias, we measured a maximum quantum efficiency of 71 percent at 254 nm and a maximum responsivity of 0.15 A/W at 253 nm for a 150 micron diameter device. To our knowledge, these are the best values reported in the literature. For a 30 micron device, 50 ps FWHM pulse response is observed. When the scope response is deconvoluted, a maximum 3-dB bandwidth of 4.0 GHz is obtained for 30 micron diameter Schottky photodiodes.
Open Access
Design and characterization of resonant cavity enhanced Schottky photodiodes
(1996) Gökkavas, Mutlu
Recently, novel photodetectors which employ a multiple-pass detection scheme to increase the efficiency-bandwidth product have been developed. In this thesis. we present our work on .\iAs/GaAs resonant cavity enhanced (RCE) Schottky photodiodes w'ith an InGaAs absorber. Quantum efficiency enhancement is acconiplished by placing the InGaAs absorber inside a Fabry-Perot microcavity whose mirrors are formed b}' the Au Schottky layer cind an rVlAs/GaAs quarter wave stcick (QWS) reflector. In the design and analysis of the structures, scattering (S) matrices are used. Reflectivity, transmissivity, quantum efficiency, and the loss in the Schottky metal are calculated, a.nd it is shown that, it is ¡possible to diminish the front-surface reflectivity using a Si:iN.| dielectric coating to optimize the quantum efficiency. High speed and spectral efficiency/ measurements on fabricated photodiodes are also presented.
Open Access
Fabrication and characterization of high-speed, high quantum efficiency, resonant cavity enhanced Schottky photodiodes
(1998) Ata, Erhan Polatkan
Rapidly developing “photonics” technology promises higher bcindwidths of communiccition than any other techniciue did ever. The increasing rate of communication not only alters science and technology, but brings a global cultural exchange, which seems to be one of the most important revolutions in the history. Photodetectors, as vital corniDonents of optoelectronics, cire still being developed to achieve satisfying performances for the increasing communication demcinds. We have designed and fabricated high-speed, high efficiency resonant Ccivity enhanced (RCE) Schottky photodiodes, suitable for 800-850 mil operation wavelengths. We have used two different GaAs/AlGaAs based epitaxial structures to achieve high performance. From one of these structures, we fabricated photodiodes with 50% quantum efficiency and 80 GHz 3-dB bandwidth. The other structure had a design suitable for préfabrication wavelength tuning and adjustable active layer thickness. On this structure, we achieved 20% quantum efficiency along with, world record for RGB photodiodes, over 110 (Hlz 3-dB estimated bandwidth. We investigated effects of active layer, top Au layer, and silicon nitride coating layer thicknesses on the RCE devices. Discrepancy between theory and experiments were also explained briefly. Methods for improving performances of photodiodes has been proposed ¿is possible future work. Possible appliccitions, which may make use of current knowhow on the subject, have also been mentioned.
Open Access
GaN/AlGaN-based UV photodetectors with performances exceeding the PMTS
(2008) Tut, Turgut
The recent developments in high Al-content AlxGa1−xN material growth technology made it possible to fabricate high performance solar-blind photodetectors operating in the ultraviolet (UV) spectral region with improved receiver sensitivity, low noise, low dark current density, and high speed. AlGaN-based Schottky, p-i-n, and metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (MSM) with very high performances have already been demonstrated. The UVfiltering nature of the atmospheric ozone molecules blocks the solar radiation to reach the earth’s surface for wavelengths shorter than 280 nm. In this case, UV photodetectors with cutoff wavelengths around 280 nm, which are also called solarblind detectors, can detect very weak UV signals under intense background radiation. These devices have important applications including missile plume detection, chemical/biological agent sensing, flame alarms, covert space-tospace and submarine communications, ozone-layer monitoring, and gas detection. Due to their high responsivity (600 A/W), high speed, high cathode gain (on the order of a million), and low dark current properties, photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) are frequently used in such applications. However, PMTs are very expensive and bulky. Besides, they require a cooling system, and they have high operation voltages in excess of 1000 V. To achieve solar-blind detection, PMTs should also be integrated with complex and expensive filters. In order to avoid these disadvantages, high performance solid-state UV photodetectors with high internal gain are needed. Wide band-gap semiconductor photodetectors, such as AlxGa1−xN with x=0.4, are ideal candidates for this purpose. These devices are intrinsically solar blind, in which no additional filters are needed, they have low noise, and fast response times. The lack of high internal gain has been the major limitation for the usage of AlGaN photodetectors for applications that require high sensitivity detectors. There have been several theoretical research works that examined the avalanche effect in GaN and AlGaN-based structures. However, reproducible high gain in AlGaN-based APDs is still a major limitation. We have designed, fabricated, GaN/AlGaN based photodetectors, and according to characterization measurements, the Schottky, p-i-n, and avalanche detectors have high performance in terms of quantum efficiency, dark current, detectivity, high speed response, and high reproducible avalanche gain.
Open Access
A performance-enhanced planar schottky diode for terahertz applications : an electromagnetic modeling approach
(2014) Ghobadi, Amir
Today’s state-of-the-art search engines utilize the inverted index data structure for fast text retrieval on large document collections. To parallelize the retrieval process, the inverted index should be distributed among multiple index servers. Generally the distribution of the inverted index is done in either a term-based or a document-based fashion. The performances of both schemes depend on the total number of disk accesses and the total volume of communication in the system. The classical approach for both distributions is to use the Central Broker Query Evaluation Scheme (CB) for parallel text retrieval. It is known that in this approach the central broker is heavily loaded and becomes a bottleneck. Recently, an alternative query evaluation technique, named Pipelined Query Evaluation Scheme (PPL), has been proposed to alleviate this problem by performing the merge operation on the index servers. In this study, we analyze the scalability and relative performances of the CB and PPL under various query loads to report the benefits and drawbacks of each method.
Open Access
Plasmonically enhanced silicon infrared Schottky detector
(2011) Polat, Kazım Gürkan
Open Access
Silicon carbide high voltage devices
(2011) Kazar, Özgür