title: Dark current suppression in an erbium-germanium-erbium photodetector with an asymmetric electrode area.
abstract: In this work, suppression of the dark current level in a metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetector fabricated on the intrinsic (i) Ge is achieved by exploiting (1) the Er electrode, providing a relatively high hole barrier, and (2) the concept of asymmetric electrode area, to minimize the Schottky barrier height lowering effect. Compared with a symmetric MSM photodetector fabricated with Ti electrodes, the dark current level was reduced by a factor of about 80. This low dark current i-Ge MSM photodetector is promising for applications requiring low power and a high photo-to-dark-current ratio.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronics and Radio Engineering, College of Electronics and Information, Kyung Hee University, Yongin, Korea 446-701. jhpark9@khu.ac.kr
authors.forename: Jin-Hong
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Hyun-Yong
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Yu