Characterization of temperature dependent operation of a GaInNAs-based RCEPD designed for 1.3 mu m

Abstract

We report the characteristics of the temperature dependent operation of a GaInNAs-based resonant-cavity-enhanced photodetector (RCEPD), designed to be operated at the dispersion minimum optical communication window of 1.3 mu M. A Transfer-Matrix Method (TMM) was used to design the structure of the device. The absorption layer of the photodetector is comprised of nine 7 nm-thick Ga0.733In0.267N0.025As0.975(Sb)/GaN0.035As0.965 quantum wells, and 15 and 10 pairs of GaAs/AlAs distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) grown as the bottom and top mirrors, to form the cavity of the device. All electrical and optical measurements were carried out over a temperature range from 10 to 40 degrees C in order to investigate the characteristic of the device. The quantum efficiency is determined to be in the range of 16% (at 10 degrees C) and 31% (at 40 degrees C). An excellent wavelength selectivity is observed which changed from 3.7 nm (at 10 degrees C) to 5.4 nm (at 40 degrees C). The dark current of the device is measured as 11 nA at 10 degrees C and 19 nA at 40 degrees C without bias. The photocurrent at -0.5 V is measured to be 1.5 mA at 25 degrees C. The high dark current of the device is attributed to weak confinement of the electrons in GaInNAs QW surrounded by the strain-compensator GaNAs barrier layers. The temperature dependent cavity wavelength was analytically calculated and compared with that of experimental results. The temperature dependent linear shifts of the resonance wavelength (d lambda/dT) is calculated as 0.077 nm/degrees C, which is in good agreement with the experimental result, 0.080 nm/degrees C. Our results reveal that the characteristics of a RCEPD, such as quantum efficiency, FWHM etc., are quite sensitive to temperature changes due to the temperature dependence of the refractive index of the DBRs. Crown Copyright (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.