EFFECTS OF RESIDUAL SHOCKLEY-READ TRAPS ON THE EFFICIENCY OF AUGER-SUPPRESSED IR DETECTOR DIODES

Auger suppression has been demonstrated as a means of reducing the noise in narrow-gap semiconductor photon detectors at near-ambient temperatures. To achieve this low-noise state, residual Shockley-Read (SR) generation processes must be negligible. Calculations have been made for a near-ambient-temperature n- pi -p CMT photodiode operated in reverse bias. At low bias this is a leaky, low-resistance device, but at high bias it exhibits Auger suppression and negative resistance. The authors determine the effect of residual SR centres, taking into account partial trap occupancy, degeneracy, generation-recombination mechanisms, compensation, large deviations from equilibrium and graded interfaces.