LWIR multispectral quantum well infrared photodetectors

Pradip Mitra; Francine C. Case; James H. McCurdy

doi:10.1117/12.497402

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10 October 2003 LWIR multispectral quantum well infrared photodetectors

Pradip Mitra, Francine C. Case, James H. McCurdy

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Proceedings Volume 5074, Infrared Technology and Applications XXIX; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.497402
Event: AeroSense 2003, 2003, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

This paper reports new results on multi/hyper-spectral IR detectors based on GaAs/AlGaAs multiple quantum well (MQW) materials. The wavelength tuned quantum-well IR photodetectors are obtained by patterning three-dimensional diffractive resonant optical cavities into the MQW structures. Control of the peak wavelength within the absorption band of the MQW material is achieved by adjusting the optical cavity dimensions. This approach enables highly effective optical coupling into the MQW material, produces narrow spectral response, improved detector quantum efficiency (QE) and reduced dark currents. Results are reported on the performance of multispectral detectors that are designed to operate in the 8-14 μm spectral band. Spectrally broadened MQW material absorption is achieved by engineering a triple coupled quantum well design that produces absorption bands with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of less than or equal to 3 μm. Two back-to-back MQW stacks have been employed to achieve spectral coverage in the range of 8-14 μm. As many as 52 different detector designs were fabricated on a single chip with 32x64 pixels. The spectrally tuned multispectral detector arrays exhibit excellent spectral dispersion and spectral response FWHM as narrow as ~ 0.4 μm at 8.5 μm peak wavelength. The detectors exhibit QE values in the range of 15-50%. The background limited detectivity measured at 40 K with a 295 K background and f/2.5 is in the range of (0.8-1.5)x10¹¹ cm-Hz^0.5/W. These high performance QWIPs are the first multispectral detectors fabricated over the 8-14 μm wavelength band.

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Pradip Mitra, Francine C. Case, and James H. McCurdy "LWIR multispectral quantum well infrared photodetectors", Proc. SPIE 5074, Infrared Technology and Applications XXIX, (10 October 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.497402

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