Advantages and disadvantages of sulfur passivation of InAs/GaSb superlattice waveguide photodiodes

In this work, the influence of ammonium sulfide (NH4)2S passivation on waveguide based mid-infrared InAs/GaSb superlattice photodetectors (2–5 µm wavelength) has been studied. The current–voltage characteristics for reverse as well as for forward bias of passivated samples have been examined. The advantages of this have been the reduction of the reverse leakage current and the increase of zero bias resistance. As a disadvantage the decrease of the photoresponsivity after sulfur passivation has been found. Furthermore, it has been observed that the passivation solution does not only passivate the surface of GaSb, but it also reacts with entire GaSb layers and can destroy the devices.