Ultrahigh Negative Infrared Photoconductance in Highly As-Doped Germanium Nanowires Induced by Hot Electron Trapping

Here, we report the observation of negative photoconductance (NPC) effect in highly arsenic-doped germanium nanowires (Ge NWs) for the infrared light. NPC was studied by light-assisted Kelvin probe force microscopy, which shows the depletion of carriers in n-Ge NWs in the presence of infrared light. The trapping of photocarriers leads to high recombination of carriers in the presence of light, which is dominant in the n-type devices. Furthermore, a carrier trapping model was used to investigate the trapping and detrapping phenomena and it was observed that the NPC in n-Ge occurred, because of the fast trapping of mobile charge carriers by interfacial states. The performance of n-type devices was compared with p-type NW detectors, which shows the conventional positive photoconductive behavior with high gain of 10(4). The observed results can be used to study the application of Ge NWs for various optoelectronic applications involving light tunable memory device applications.