Investigation of the avalanche photocurrent of Schottky barrier diodes at the self-absorption edge

The spectral dependences of photocurrent in Schottky barrier diodes (based on epitaxial n-n+-n++-GaAs diodes) were studied for reverse bias voltages. An effort was made to distinguish between the contributions of two effects to the formation of these spectral dependences: (1) the variation of photocurrent-carrier collection and (2) the shift of the self-absorption edge of light in strong electric fields. The generation of additional primary carriers by the Franz-Keldysh effect is shown to be dominant under such conditions.