Effect of donor-complex-defect-induced dipole field on InAs/GaAs quantum dot infrared photodetector activation energy

In order to understand dopant incorporation in quantum dot infrared photodetectors, three quantum dot (QD) Schottky diodes (undoped, delta doped, and modulation doped) have been investigated. Donor-complex-defect (DX) centers have been observed by photocapacitance quenching in the doped diodes only. When the applied bias increases, the doped samples show a rapid increase in dark current and a resulting dramatic decrease in QD activation energy. The activation energy reduction could be related to a dipole field between positively charged DX centers and electrons in QDs. A transport mechanism is proposed to explain the observed activation energy bias dependence in the doped samples. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.