Investigation of the dark electrical characteristics of the lateral metal–semiconductor–metal photodetectors using two-dimensional numerical simulation

✍ Scribed by Nacer Debbar

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 460 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-3370
• DOI: 10.1002/jnm.781

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

A detailed investigation of the dark electrical characteristics of the lateral metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) structures is carried out using a two‐dimensional numerical simulation based on the drift‐diffusion model. The model includes image force barrier lowering and current‐dependent recombination velocities at the Schottky contacts. The simulation was used to examine the details of the depletion region, the electric field distributions, and the current path in the active region of the planar structure. The obtained results were shown to be very helpful to understand and to explain various behaviours seen in the characteristics of the metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) structures. The dark I‐V characteristics of the structure were also calculated and compared with published experimental data. The results reveal the importance of the image force lowering on the characteristics and the hole injection at the forward contact beyond the flat band voltage. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.