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Evidence of a Shockley-Read-Hall Defect State Independent of Band-Edge Energy in InAs/In(As,Sb) Type-II Superlattices

Aytac, Yigit A.; Olson, Ben O.; Kim, Jin K.; Shaner, Eric A.; Hawkins, Samuel D.; Klem, John F.; Flatte, Michael E.; Boggess, Tom B.

A set of seven InAs/InAsSb type-II superlattices (T2SLs) were designed to have speci c bandgap energies between 290 meV (4.3 m) and 135 meV (9.2 m) in order to study the e ects of the T2SL bandgap energy on the minority carrier lifetime. A temperature dependent optical pump-probe technique is used to measure the carrier lifetimes, and the e ect of a mid-gap defect level on the carrier recombination dynamics is reported. The Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) defect state is found to be at energy of approximately -250 12 meV relative to the valence band edge of bulk GaSb for the entire set of T2SL structures, even though the T2SL valence band edge shifts by 155 meV on the same scale. These results indicate that the SRH defect state in InAs/InAsSb T2SLs is singular and is nearly independent of the exact position of the T2SL bandgap or band edge energies. They also suggest the possibility of engineering the T2SL structure such that the SRH state is removed completely from the bandgap, a result that should signi cantly increase the minority carrier lifetime.