Effects of photocurrent multiplication in HgCdTe photodiodes

Tetsuya Miyatake; Iwao Sugiyama; Nobuyuki Kajihara; Yoshihiro Miyamoto

doi:10.1117/12.280322

13 August 1997 Effects of photocurrent multiplication in HgCdTe photodiodes

Tetsuya Miyatake, Iwao Sugiyama, Nobuyuki Kajihara, Yoshihiro Miyamoto

Proceedings Volume 3061, Infrared Technology and Applications XXIII; (1997) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.280322
Event: AeroSense '97, 1997, Orlando, FL, United States

Abstract

We have investigated the reverse current-voltage characteristics of both 3 - 5 micrometer and 8 - 10 micrometer band HgCdTe photodiodes under background illumination in the temperature range of 40 K to 120 K. The experimental results show that the differential resistance of reverse biased photodiodes decreases with an increase in the incident photon flux density. In the higher reverse biased illuminated photodiodes, breakdown occurs. The reverse differential resistance is limited by this breakdown mechanism. In order to determine the causal mechanism, we calculated the photocurrent multiplication resulting from the electron impact ionization in the photodiode depletion region. For the calculation, we applied Shockley's 'lucky electron' equation assuming that only electrons multiply the photocurrent. The calculated reverse differential resistance-voltage characteristics agrees well with the measured results. The calculated differential resistance at a low reverse bias voltage as a function of incident photon flux density corresponds to the measured results in the temperature range of 40 K to 100 K. This indicates that the photocurrent multiplication by electron impact ionization occurs in the photodiode depletion region. In the low temperature region, the measured differential resistance increases with the decrease in temperature. This is caused by the acceptor freeze-out effects. We concluded that the differential resistance-voltage characteristics of HgCdTe photodiodes are limited by the effect of photocurrent multiplication, and the photomultiplication effect is limited by the carrier freeze-out in the low temperature region.

Citation Download Citation

Tetsuya Miyatake, Iwao Sugiyama, Nobuyuki Kajihara, and Yoshihiro Miyamoto "Effects of photocurrent multiplication in HgCdTe photodiodes", Proc. SPIE 3061, Infrared Technology and Applications XXIII, (13 August 1997); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.280322

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