Infrared Physics & Technology 92 (2018) 13–17

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Infrared Physics & Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/infrared

Regular article

Ge-based mid-infrared blocked-impurity-band photodetectors q

Jiaqi Zhu a, He Zhu b,⇑, Hanlun Xu a, Zeping Weng a, Huizhen Wu a,⇑
a
Department of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310027, PR China
b
College of Electronics and Information, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, PR China

h i g h l i g h t s

RBM has a lower optimum bias but a larger maximum of photocurrent.

The finding above is caused by the slope of the electric field profile in BL.

The longer BL is, the larger photocurrent under RBM is.

There is a red-shift for photocurrent spectrum of RBM compared with that of FBM.

Lengthening BL is expected to improve performance of BIB detectors under RBM.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Mid-infrared blocked-impurity-band (BIB) photonic detectors are developed by sulfur (S) ions implanta-
Received 8 January 2018 tion into germanium (Ge) crystal. The detectors demonstrate wide photoresponse spectra ranging from 2
Revised 11 March 2018 to 10 lm with peak response at about 6 lm. We characterize photocurrent spectra of two operating
Accepted 28 April 2018
modes, forward bias mode (FBM) and reverse bias mode (RBM), and find that RBM has a lower optimum
Available online 5 May 2018
bias but a bigger photocurrent. Effect of different blocking layer (BL) length on photocurrents for the two
operating modes is studied. When BL length increases, the ratio of the relative photocurrent under RBM
Keywords:
to that under FBM at respective optimum bias enlarges. The slope of the electric field profile in BL leads
Blocked impurity band detector
Mid-infrared
to the differences of optimum bias and maximum photocurrent between two modes. The electric
Operation modes field strength in AL under RBM strengthens as BL length increases, resulting in larger photocurrent for
Blocking layer length longer BL.
Ó 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction of D* [7]. Type Ⅱ strained-layer superlattices with materials such

as InAsSb/InSb or InGaSb/InAs have been widely studied [8,9].
Mid-infrared (MIR), in the wavelength range of 3–5 lm, is But the epitaxial-growth technique for the antimonides is not
intensely desirable for varied applications in pollution monitoring, mature and reliable enough for group V intermixing during
optical gas sensors, thermal imaging, chemical analysis, and spatial growth, either. Moreover, surface passivation is also a big concern
orientation, while various MIR detectors have been developed for for antimonide-based devices. Intersubband transitions in
practical applications in these fields [1–4]. At present, there are quantum-confined heterostructures in III-V compounds can be
mainly three types of material systems pursued to realize high- used for MIR detection as well [10–12]. Nevertheless, the selection
sensitivity MIR photonic detectors. Low-bandgap materials, such rules of the intersubband transitions prevent normal-incidence
as HgCdTe [5,6], are preferred due to their high responsivity and photons from being absorbed by transitions from the ground state
detectivity (D*). However, there remain problems in the epitaxial to the excited states [11], and because of the short lifetime of elec-
growth of HgCdTe-based materials because of the presence of trons in the excited state (5 ps), the electrons largely relax back to
fearful interface instabilities and void-defect densities, which the ground state before they can escape from the quantum well
can be seen in the high uncertainty and fluctuation of the value and contribute to the photocurrent [13].
The blocked-impurity-band (BIB) detector structure, presented
q
in 1986 by Petroff and Stapelbroek [14], has a good chance to be
This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant
employed in MIR photonic detection to overcome the shortcom-
61290305 and Grant 11374259.
⇑ Corresponding authors. ings mentioned above. In this detector system, the active layer is
E-mail addresses: hezhu@hdu.edu.cn (H. Zhu), hzwu@zju.edu.cn (H. Wu). doped so heavily that the absorption efficiency gets increased

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infrared.2018.04.015
1350-4495/Ó 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
14 J. Zhu et al. / Infrared Physics & Technology 92 (2018) 13–17

and hopping conduction gets realized in the impurity band, while and different-concentration steps was used. The final concentra-
the dark current through the device is still effectively suppressed tion of about 2  1017 cm3 was obtained, which was verified by
by skillfully employing an ultrapure blocking layer (BL) to block Hall Effect characterization. In view of the channeling effect, more-
the impurity band conduction. Consequently, the working temper- over, S ion beam is incident 7° off the substrate h1 0 0i axis, so is P
ature of the device can be improved greatly. What’s more, the tech- ion beam when ion implanting in the later process. After removing
nologies applied in fabricating BIB detectors are easily the photoresist, the same processing steps were adopted to devel-
implemented, especially for ion-implantation BIB detectors whose oping CL by implanting P ions with higher concentration (up to
absorbing layer (AL) is achieved by ion implantation [15]. In for- 1  1020 cm3) than S ions to merge the impurity level into the
ward bias operation, n-type BIB detectors are biased with a posi- conduction band. The following is rapid thermal annealing (RTA)
tive voltage on the contact near the BL [16]. Photo-generated technique (800, 30 s) for electrically activating the dopant (S and
carriers are collected from depletion region, where a linearly P) atoms and repairing the damage caused by implantation as well.
decreasing electric field extends from the BL/AL interface into the Subsequently, a second 200 nm SiO2 layer is deposited on the sur-
AL, and transported through the BL to the front contact [17]. face by the same method serving as passivation layer to suppress
It has been already a common way to achieve far-infrared the surface recombination rate. After opening the contact region,
(especially terahertz) detection that germanium (Ge) is doped with an 1 lm Al film was deposited by magnetron sputtering, followed
specific impurity atoms. The response of Ga-doped Ge photocon- by 300 °C annealing for 30 min to form ohmic contact with the CL.
ductor can obtain a cutoff wavelength of about 113 lm [18]. It Fig. 1(b) shows the scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of
even reaches about 200 lm by means of doping B into Ge [15]. the fabricated BIB detectors.
In this paper, we fabricated MIR BIB detectors where the AL is The packaged detectors were mounted in a closed cycle refrig-
developed by implanting sulfur (S) ions into high purity host eration dewar. The photocurrent spectra were measured with a
Ge (Ge:S). The response spectra of this detectors ranges from 2 to VERTEX 80/80v Fourier-transform infrared spectrometer. Without
10 lm with peak response at about 6 lm. The influence of two specific statement there-in-after, the photoresponse characteriza-
operating modes, forward bias mode (FBM) and reverse bias mode tions of the detectors were performed at 4 K.
(RBM, where the electrode contacting the BL is negatively biased),
on the photoresponse of detectors with different BL length is stud-
ied in detail. It is found that there exists a lower optimum bias but 3. Results and discussion
a larger maximum of photocurrent for RBM. Moreover, there is a
red-shift for photocurrent spectrum of RBM compared with that Fig. 2(a & b), (d & e) and (g & h) show relative photocurrent spec-
of FBM. We also find that the ratio of the relative photocurrent tra of Ge:S detectors with different BL length at various bias voltages
under RBM to that under FBM at respective optimum bias under RBM or FBM. All the spectra are cutoff at approximate 10 lm
increases with BL length. In order to understand these phenomena (124 meV) which is smaller than the donor ionization energy
deeply, electric field distributions are calculated in view of doping (180 meV) of S impurity atoms in Ge. This phenomenon indicates
concentration in BL. the formation of the impurity band and narrowing of Ge band gap.
By the way, for the device with BL length of 5 lm, the responsivity
is 0.4 A/W and the detectivity is 9.7  1010 cm Hz1/2/W at 1.0 V
2. Experimental procedures
under FBM at 4 K. Moreover, there is an optimum bias in each
photocurrent spectrum where the photocurrent reaches maximum.
As shown in Fig. 1(a), the device structure is interdigital, one
The optimum bias can be clearly seen for the two modes in
cell of which consists of a S-doped AL (1 lm in thickness and
Fig. 2(c & f & i), which show the maximum photocurrent in the spec-
20  400 lm2 in area), an intrinsic BL (as well as the high
tra vs bias voltage for the two modes of 5 lm, 7 lm and 9 lm,
purity Ge substrate), two heavily phosphor-doped contact layers
respectively. Let’s take the detector with BL length of 5 lm for
(CL, 1 lm in thickness) and two aluminum-deposited contacts.
example, besides, the bias applied is negative, that is, the detector
There are three kinds of BL length, 5 lm, 7 lm and 9 lm, in differ-
works under RBM. When the bias is lower than 1.0 V, the photocur-
ent interdigital structures. The AL and the CL are both developed by
rent increases with the bias. However, it decreases as the bias rises
ion implantation technology.
beyond 1.0 V. With different BL length or different operating mode,
We began the fabricating process with depositing a 200 nm SiO2
the optimum bias is evidently different. Table 1 lists the relation
layer on the substrate by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposi-
between the optimum bias and BL length as well as operating mode.
tion (PECVD), which serves as insulating layer and alignment mark
We can see that the optimum bias increases with BL length under
in the following process. Before ion implantation, the other regions
each operating mode. Furthermore, no matter what BL length is,
of Ge wafer were covered by corresponding photoresist pattern
the optimum bias of RBM is lower than that of FBM.
(about 3 lm in thickness) as protector. In order to obtain homoge-
The comparison of the photocurrent spectra of the detectors
nous AL, an implanting scheme including several different-energy
with different BL length under RBM and FBM at respective optimum
bias is shown in Fig. 3(a)–(c), and corresponding statistic of the rel-
ative photocurrent ratio is given in Table 1, where RR and RF repre-
sent the photocurrent of RBM and FBM, respectively. It is obvious
that the photocurrent under RBM is much larger than that under
FBM for all detectors. Interestingly, the ratio of the photocurrent
under RBM to that under FBM at respective optimum bias increases
with BL length. What is also interesting is that, the relative pho-
tocurrent spectrum under RBM shows a small red-shift compared
with that under FBM for all detectors, as shown in Fig. 3. The shifts
at 50% of the maximum photocurrent for BL of 5 lm, 7 lm and
9 lm, are 0.22 lm, 0.15 lm and 0.18 lm, respectively.
Fig. 4(a) and (b) display the energy band diagram for the detec-
Fig. 1. (a) Cross section and top view (without passivation layer) of the Ge:S BIB tor under FBM and RBM, respectively. When the test temperature
detector. (b) A SEM image of the fabricated Ge:S BIB detector. is low enough, almost all electrons are assumed to be frozen out
 J. Zhu et al. / Infrared Physics & Technology 92 (2018) 13–17 15

Fig. 2. Photocurrent spectra of Ge:S detectors with different BL length at various bias voltages: under RBM (a) and FBM (b) of 5 lm in BL length, under RBM (d) and FBM (e) of
7 lm in BL length, under RBM (g) and FBM (h) of 9 lm in BL length. (c), (f) and (i) are the plots of maximum photocurrent in the spectra vs bias voltage for two modes of 5 lm,
7 lm and 9 lm, respectively.

Table 1
The optimum bias value and RR/RF at respective optimum bias vs BL length.

BL length 5 lm 7 lm 9 lm
Optimum bias value RBM 1.0 V 1.2 V 1.6 V
FBM 1.2 V 1.6 V 2.0 V
RR/RF at respective optimum bias 2.2 4.9 17.5

Fig. 3. Comparison of the photocurrent spectra of detectors with BL length of (a) 5 lm, (b) 7 lm, and (c) 9 lm, under RBM and FBM at respective optimum bias.
16 J. Zhu et al. / Infrared Physics & Technology 92 (2018) 13–17

Fig. 4. The energy band diagram for the detector under (a) FBM and (b) RBM.

in the impurity band. In the Ge substrate, however, there is a small band offset at the AL/BL interface. Under FBM, the transport of
concentration of involuntarily doped acceptors, more than likely photo-generated electrons with low kinetic energy in the conduc-
boron. And it is highly likely that most of the acceptors are ionized, tion band may be hindered by this band offset, resulting in the
leading to the formation of vacancy states (viewed as ‘‘holes”) in blue-shift of the photocurrent spectrum of FBM compared with
the impurity band. When the electrode attached to the BL is posi- that of RBM.
tively biased, that is, the detector is operated under FBM, ‘‘holes” in Ge crystal has a smaller band gap than that of Si. The doping
the impurity band are swept out into the one end near the concentration in BL for Ge-based BIB detector is generally non-
grounded contact by hopping conduction. The other region of the negligible, thus there should be a slope of the electric field distribu-
impurity band is called depletion region [19]. As infrared radiation tion in BL [20], instead of remaining constant in the case of an ideal
with photon energy above the photoionization threshold for S intrinsic BL given in Ref. [19]. In view of this fact and referring to
donor in Ge, is incident on the detector, electron-‘‘hole” pairs thus the model given in Ref. [20], electric field distributions as a func-
are generated in AL. The photo-generated carries in the depletion tion of bias for both FBM and RBM for the detector with BL length
region are swept out and contribute to photocurrent, but the of 7 lm are calculated and shown in Fig. 5(a). Under FBM, the
photo-generated carries in the other end of AL recombine, as depletion region length increases with bias and it almost equals
shown in Fig. 4(a). When the detector is operated under RBM, how- to AL length (20 lm) when bias is 1.6 V. Further elevating bias will
ever, the working principle is different. As the electrode connected lead to drastic increase of the dark current, decreasing the ratio of
with BL is negatively biased, ‘‘hole” are swept out into the end near signal arisen from S impurity ionization to noise. As a result, the
BL and the depletion region is formed near the grounded contact. photocurrent achieves maximum at 1.6 V, as shown in Fig. 2(d).
The photo-generated carriers move to the opposite direction com- The situation under RBM is basically similar. However, because
pared with FBM, as shown in Fig. 4(b). What is also worth mention- of the different slopes of electric field distributions in BL, the elec-
ing is that, the difference of impurity energy level in Ge between tric field strength in AL of RBM at respective optimum bias is stron-
donor P in electrode regions and S, makes the connection of the ger than that of FBM. In this case, photo-generated carriers in RBM
grounded contact and the impurity band blocked, and hence guar- have higher saturated drift velocities, contributing to larger pho-
antees the formation of the depletion region under RBM. Due to the tocurrent, as shown in Fig. 3(b). Other detectors with BL length
energy-gap-narrowed effect caused by heavy doping, there exists a of 5 lm and 9 lm can also be understood in this picture.

Fig. 5. (a) Electric field profiles as a function of bias for both FBM and RBM for the detector with BL length of 7 lm. (b) Electric field profiles for three BL lengthes (5, 7, and 9
lm) under both FBM and RBM at respective optimum bias.
 J. Zhu et al. / Infrared Physics & Technology 92 (2018) 13–17 17

Fig. 5(b) shows electric field distributions for different BL Appendix A. Supplementary material
lengths under both FBM and RBM at respective optimum bias. As
we can see, the electric field distributions in AL for all detectors Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
are alike under FBM, due to their nearly same depletion region the online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infrared.2018.04.
length at respective optimum bias. Under RBM, however, the dif- 015.
ference among electric field profiles for different BL lengths is sig-
nificant. Since all detectors have the same slopes of electric field References
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