Lim, QiWarrender, Jeffrey M.Notthoff, ChristianRatcliff, TomWilliams, JimJohnson, Brett C.2024-09-042024-09-040021-8979https://hdl.handle.net/1885/733716138Hyperdoped silicon is a promising material for near-infrared light detection, but to date, the device efficiency has been limited. To optimize photodetectors based on this material that operate at room temperature, we present a detailed study on the electrical nature of gold-hyperdoped silicon formed via ion implantation and pulsed-laser melting (PLM). After PLM processing, oxygen-rich and gold-rich surface layers were identified and a wet etch process was developed to remove them. Resistivity and Hall effect measurements were performed at various stages of device processing. The underlying gold-hyperdoped silicon was found to be semi-insulating, regardless of whether the surface gold was removed by etching or not. We propose a Fermi level pinning model to describe the band bending of the transformed surface layer and propose a promising device architecture for efficient Au-hyperdoped Si photodetectors.This work is supported by the U.S. Army (Contract No. FA5209-16-P-0104). We acknowledge access and support to NCRIS facilities (ANFF and the Heavy Ion Accelerator Capability) at the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne.application/pdfen-AU© 2024 The authorshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/202410.1063/5.01969852024-04-21Creative Commons Attribution licence