Electroabsorption Al(0.48)In(0.52)As pin avalanche photodiodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy.
01 January 1984
The operation of the first Al(0.48)In(0.52)As pin avalanche photodiode is reported. The i layer has a background doping -10(14)/cm(3) and the diodes have breakdown voltages in excess of -80V. A strong enhancement of the photoresponse accompanied by avalanche gain at wavelengths near and beyond the band-gap is observed, due to the Franz-Keldysh effect. At short wavelengths an avalanche gain of 50 was measured. A detailed study of different etches to achieve optimum taper of the mesas was also made.