Suppression of persistent photoconductivity AlGaN/GaN heterostructure photodetectors using pulsed heating

This paper demonstrates a method to reduce the decay time in AlGaN/GaN photodetectors by a pulsed heating mode. A suspended AlGaN/GaN heterostructure photodetector integrated with a micro-heater is fabricated and characterized under ultraviolet illumination. We have observed that the course of persistent photoconductivity was effectively accelerated by applying pulsed heating. The decay time is significantly reduced from 175 s by DC heating to 116 s by 50 Hz pulsed heating at the same power (280 mW). With the same pulse duty cycle and a 50 Hz pulsed heating frequency, a reduction of 30%-45% in decay time is measured compared to DC heating.