A practical theoretical model for Ge-like epitaxial diodes: I. The I–V characteristics

Abstract

A practical quantitative model is presented to account for the I–V characteristics of pin diodes based on epitaxial Ge-like materials. The model can be used to quantify how the different material properties and recombination mechanisms affect the diode performance. The importance of dislocations, non-passivated defects, and residual intrinsic layer doping in determining the qualitative shape of the I–V curves is discussed in detail. Examples are shown covering literature diodes as well as diodes fabricated with the purpose of validating the theoretical effort.