A practical theoretical model for Ge-like epitaxial diodes: I. The I-V characteristics

A practical quantitative model is presented to account for the I-V characteristics of pin diodes based on epitaxial Ge-like materials. The model can be used to quantify how the different material properties and recombination mechanisms affect the diode performance. The importance of dislocations, non-passivated defects, and residual intrinsic layer doping in determining the qualitative shape of the I-V curves is discussed in detail. Examples are shown covering literature diodes as well as diodes fabricated with the purpose of validating the theoretical effort.