Impact Ionization Coefficients of Digital Alloy and Random Alloy Al0.85Ga0.15As0.56Sb0.44 in a Wide Electric Field Range

Digital alloy and random alloy Al0.85Ga0.15As0.56 Sb-0.44 avalanche photodiodes (APDs) exhibit low excess noise, comparable to Si APDs. Consequently, this material is a promising multiplication layer candidate for separate absorption, charge, and multiplication structure APDs with high gain-bandwidth product. Characterization of the impact ionization coefficients of electrons (alpha) and holes (beta) plays an important role in the simulation of avalanche photodiodes. The multiplication gain curves of eight p(+)-i-n(+) and n(+)-i-p(+) APDs covering a wide range of avalanche widths have been used to determine the electric field dependence of the impact ionization coefficients of Al0.85Ga0.15As0.56Sb0.44. A large impact ionization coefficient ratio between that of electrons to holes was seen across a wide electric field range. Simulations of the avalanche multiplication in these structures using a random path length (RPL) model gave good agreement with experimental results over almost three orders of magnitude, and a mixed injection method was employed to verify the extracted impact ionization coefficients. Interestingly, no difference in the impact ionization coefficients was seen between digital alloy and random alloy Al0.85Ga0.15As0.56Sb0.44. This knowledge of impact ionization coefficients is beneficial for the future utilization of the AlxGa1-xAsySb1-y material system.