Temperature dependence of impact ionization coefficients in InP

Impact ionization coefficients for electrons and holes in InP were measured experimentally at 25–175 °C in the 400–600 kV/cm electric field range with planar avalanche photodiodes, in which the n-InP avalanche region was separated from the light absorbing InGaAs and/or InGaAsP layers. α and β monotonically decreased with elevated temperatures; β/α slightly decreased with increasing temperature. Comparison of the experimental results with Okuto–Crowell formula on the impact ionization coefficient gave the phonon energy ERO=46 meV and the phonon scattering mean free path λ0=41.7 Å for electron impact ionization and ERO=36 meV and λ0=41.3 Å for hole impact ionization, respectively. Curves calculated by using these parameters agree with the experimental results quite satisfactorily at each temperature.