Optical Absorption at Digitally and Continuously Graded Indium Gallium Nitride Schottky Barriers

Abstract

AbstractWe present numerical calculations of the optical absorption characteristics of graded Indium Gallium Nitride Schottky Barriers, and study their implications for photovoltaic and photodetector applications. We consider the two cases of digital and continuous grading because of their different effects on the collection of photo-generated carriers due to band discontinuities. Composition grading can achieve desired spectral response between the ranges of 0.7 eV and 3.43 eV afforded by the Indium Gallium Nitride alloy system. The presence of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations in this material system adds bulk and/or interface bound charges in graded layers. This has a non-trivial effect on the band profile seen by the photo-generated carriers. The layer thicknesses needed for optimal absorption characteristics are well above the theoretical critical thickness limits reported in the literature for abrupt heterojunctions. However, experimental data about critical thicknesses is scarce, especially for graded compositions. Therefore, we calculate the characteristics of the Schottky barrier for the case of spontaneous polarization only and also for the case of both spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization assuming no relaxation. The low or even negative Schottky barrier heights at low Gallium composition necessitates the use of high Gallium composition layers next to the metal, in order to suppress the excessive dark currents