Photosensitive field emitters including a-Si:H p-i-n photodetection region

Author

Sawada, Kazuaki ; Matsumura, Nobuhisa ; Ando, Takao

Author_Institution

Res. Inst. of Electron., Shizuoka Univ., Hamamatsu, Japan

Volume

45

Issue

1

fYear

1998

fDate

1/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

321

Lastpage

325

Abstract

A new photosensitive field emitter termed “photosensitive floating field emitter” is proposed. The photosensitive field emitter was constructed using an n-type Si field emitter tip and an a-Si:H p-i-n photodiode film. A back incidence type photosensitive floating field emitter was fabricated by depositing intrinsic a-Si:H and p-type a-SiC:H film on the back of n-type cone-shaped Si emitter array. The emission current as a function of the illumination intensity was measured and the operation of the photosensitive floating field emitter was described. The possibility of a photosensitive device with more than unit effective quantum efficiency was confirmed using an equivalent circuit for the photosensitive field emitter, which is composed of cone-shaped field emitters (n-type Si) and an avalanche photodiode. It is observed that the emission current exceeds the unit quantum efficiency

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; avalanche photodiodes; electron field emission; elemental semiconductors; equivalent circuits; hydrogen; p-i-n photodiodes; photocathodes; photodetectors; silicon; vacuum microelectronics; Si; Si:H; a-Si:H p-i-n photodiode film; avalanche photodiode; back incidence; emission current; equivalent circuit; n-type cone-shaped Si field emitter array; photodetection; photosensitive floating field emitter; quantum efficiency; Cathodes; Current measurement; Dark current; Electron emission; Field emitter arrays; Lighting; PIN photodiodes; Semiconductor films; Silicon; Temperature;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.658848

Filename

658848