Negative photoconductivity of selectively doped SiGe/Si: B heterostructures with a two-dimensional hole gas in the middle-infrared range

The spectra of lateral photoconductivity in selectively doped SiGe/Si: B heterostructures with a two-dimensional hole gas are analyzed. It is revealed that the lateral photoconductivity spectra of these heterostructures exhibit two signals opposite in sign. The positive signal of the photoconductivity is associated with the impurity photoconductivity in silicon layers of the heterostructures. The negative signal of the photoconductivity is assigned to the transitions of holes from the SiGe quantum well to long-lived states in silicon barriers. The position of the negative photoconductivity signal depends on the composition of the quantum well, and the energy of the low-frequency edge of this signal is in close agreement with the calculated band offset between the quantum-confinement level of holes in the quantum well and the valence band edge in the barrier.