Nonequilibrium radiation of long-wavelength InAs∕GaSb superlattice photodiodes

The emission behavior of binary-binary type-II InAs∕GaSb superlattice photodiodes has been studied in the spectral range between 8 and 13μm. With a radiometric calibration of the experimental setup the internal and external quantum efficiencies have been determined in the temperature range between 80 and 300K for both the negative and positive luminescences. The negative luminescence efficiency approaches values as high as 35% without antireflection coating. An analytic description of the temperature dependence of the internal quantum efficiency around a zero-bias voltage allows for the determination of the coefficient for electron-hole-electron Auger recombination Γn=1×1024cm6s−1. For an n-type material, the minority-carrier lifetime is provided as a function of band gap and temperature, explaining the strong decrease of the minority-carrier lifetime in the case of an n-type residual background exceeding 1×1016cm−3. Furthermore, an analytic expression of the quantum efficiency for the radiation upon forw...