Voltage sharing effect and interface state calculation of a wafer-bonding Ge/Si avalanche photodiode with an interfacial GeO2 insulator layer.

The tunneling effect and interface state in the p-Ge/GeO2p-Si structure of a wafer-bonding Ge/Si avalanche photodiode (APD) are investigated. It is found that the thin interfacial GeO2 layer (1-2 nm) formed by the hydrophilic reaction at the wafer-bonding interface significantly affects the performance of the Ge/Si APD. With the increase of the GeO2 thickness, the dark current of the Ge/Si APD decreases enormously due to the blocking effect of this GeO2 layer. Owing to the carrier accumulation in Ge layer under illumination condition, the voltage sharing effect of the GeO2 layer (thicker) becomes serious, leading to the absence of the electric field in Ge layer. The photon-generated electrons at Ge/GeO2 interface can be captured and released by the interface states at certain reverse bias. This can adjust the avalanche current of the Ge/Si APD. The stronger interface recombination induced by the larger interface state density (ISD) results in the decrease of the electric field in Ge layer. This increases the transit time of carriers, which in turn decreases the 3dB-bandwidth. Due to the drastic increase of the dark current (larger ISD), the gain of the Ge/Si APD decreases.