Ga0.47In0.53As ultrahigh gain, high sensitivity photoconductors grown by chloride vapor‐phase epitaxy

摘要

We report highly sensitive planar, interdigitated Ga0.47In0.54As photoconductive detectors prepared by trichloride vapor‐phase epitaxy. The devices exhibit dc gains as high as 104 at 1.3 μm. For a bit rate of 500 Mbit/s a sensitivity of P¯=-35.4 dBm has been measured at 1.55 μm. With devices having unity gain quantum efficiencies of η=33% we obtain ηP¯=-40 dBm matching the highest sensitivity measured with a p‐i‐n photodetector at similar bit rates. The devices show responsivities in excess of 3000 A/W and detectivities ranging between 1012 and 1013 cm Hz1/2 W-1. These values represent the highest performance that has ever been achieved with photoconductors in this wavelength range.