Thermal reliability and performances of InGaP Schottky contact with Cu/Au and Au/Cu-MSM photodetectors

We report the Schottky performance and thermal reliability of a wide bandga p InGaP layer in contact with a Cu/Au metallic system. An effective Schottk y barrier height of 0.97 eV and an ideality factor of 1.21 can be achieved. The thermal reliability of the resultant Schottky barrier diodes was analy zed using Auger electron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The ther mal reliability could be maintained up to 450 degreesC. The failure mechani sm was attributable to the decomposition of the InGaP layer and the interdi ffusion of the chemical elements at higher temperature. Insensitive photore sponsivity with the incident optical power was found for the resultant Au/C u-metal-semiconductor-metal-photodetectors (MSM-PDs). According to the meas ured temporal response of the Au/Cu-MSM-PDs, the operation frequency could be above 10 GHz.