Development of Ultra-Low Noise, High Performance III-V Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIPs) for Focal Plane Array Staring Image Sensor Systems

Abstract

During this reporting period we have continued to make excellent progress towards the program goals. We have made a major breakthrough in the development of a new normal incidence p-type strained layer InGaAs/InAlAs QWIP grown on InP by MBE, which achieved both the lowest dark current and highest detectivity ever reported for a QWIP operating at 8.1 um and 77 K. The device dark current at 77 K is one to two orders of magnitude smaller than its 300 K background photocurrent, which shows that this p-type strained layer QWIP is under BLIP operation at 77 K. Other tasks performed during this period include: (1) measured and compared the device dark current with 300 K background limited photocurrent (BLIP) for several QWIPs fabricated from GaAs/AlGaAs, InGaAs/ InAlAs, and AlAs/AlGaAs material systems, (2) designed a broad band 2-D square mesh grating coupler for the dual-mode operation GaAs QWIP to enhance the coupling quantum efficiency and responsivity of this QWIP in the 3-5 and 8-12 um bands, (3) using a 2-D square mesh grating coupler to achieve maximum responsivity for an InGaAs SBTM QWIP, and (4) performed noise characterization on four different types of III-V QWIPs and identified their noise sources. Detailed results and accomplishments are discussed in this report.... Quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs), GaAs/AlGaAs, Strained p-type, InGaAs/ InAlAs, Miniband transport, Intersubband absorption, Dark current, Responsivity, Detectivity, Square mesh metal grating coupler.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA267715

Entities

People

  • Shengsan Li

Organizations

  • University of Florida

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Band Structures
  • Charge Carriers
  • Crystal Lattices
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Electronics
  • Energy Bands
  • Focal Plane Arrays
  • Focal Planes
  • Ground State
  • Infrared Detection
  • Infrared Detectors
  • Long Wavelengths
  • Quantum Wells
  • Semiconductors
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Quantum Dot Semiconductor Device Photonics and Graphene Optoelectronic Materials and THz Physics.
  • Semiconductor Device Technology

Technology Areas

  • Quantum Computing