Alexander Soibel

A high-performance long wavelength superlattice complementary barrier infrared detector

We describe a long wavelength infrared detector where an InAs/GaSb superlattice absorber is surrounded by a pair of electron-blocking and hole-blocking unipolar barriers. A 9.9 μm cutoff device without antireflection coating based on this complementary barrier infrared detector design exhibits a responsivity of 1.5 A/W and a dark current density of 0.99×10−5 A/cm2 at 77 K under 0.2 V bias. The detector reaches 300 K background limited infrared photodetection (BLIP) operation at 87 K, with a black-body BLIP D∗ value of 1.1×1011 cm Hz1/2/W for f/2 optics under 0.2 V bias.

Type-II Superlattice Infrared Detectors

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of type-II superlattice infrared detectors. The type-II InAs/GaSb superlattices have several fundamental properties that make them suitable for infrared detection: (1) their band gaps can be made arbitrarily small by design, (2) they are more immune to band-to-band tunneling compared with bulk material, (3) the judicious use of strain in type-II InAs/GaInSb strained layer superlattice (SLS) can enhance its absorption strength over that of the type-II InAs/GaSb superlattice to a level comparable with HgVdTe (MCT), and (4) type-II InAs/Ga(In)Sb superlattices also reduce Auger recombination. In addition, the dark current characteristics of type-II superlattice-based single element long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) detectors are currently approaching state-of-the-art MCT detector. Noise measurements highlight the need for surface leakage suppression, which can be tackled by improved etching, passivation, and device design. The chapter also describes the principles behind advanced superlattice infrared detectors based on heterostructure designs. It also explores some aspects of device fabrication and characterization.

Influence of radiative and non-radiative recombination on the minority carrier lifetime in midwave infrared InAs/InAsSb superlattices

Optical modulation response is used to study the influence of radiative, Shockley-Read-Hall, and Auger recombination processes on the minority carrier lifetime in a mid-wave infrared InAs/InAsSb superlattice. A comparison of calculated and measured temperature dependencies shows that the lifetime is influenced mainly by radiative recombination at low temperatures, resulting in an increase of the minority carrier lifetime from 1.8 μs at 77 K to 2.8 μs at 200 K. At temperatures above 200 K, Auger recombination increases rapidly and limits the lifetime. Shockley-Read-Hall limited lifetimes on the order of 10 μs are predicted for superlattices with lower background doping concentration.

Room temperature performance of mid-wavelength infrared InAsSb nBn detectors

In this work, we investigate the high temperature performance of mid-wavelength infrared InAsSb-AlAsSb nBn detectors with cut-off wavelengths near 4.5 μm. The quantum efficiency of these devices is 35% without antireflection coatings and does not change with temperature in the 77–325 K temperature range, indicating potential for room temperature operation. The current generation of nBn detectors shows an increase of operational bias with temperature, which is attributed to a shift in the Fermi energy level in the absorber. Analysis of the device performance shows that operational bias and quantum efficiency of these detectors can be further improved. The device dark current stays diffusion limited in the 150 K–325 K temperature range and becomes dominated by generation-recombination processes at lower temperatures. Detector detectivities are D*(λ) = 1 × 109 (cm Hz0.5/W) at T = 300 K and D*(λ) = 5 × 109 (cm Hz0.5/W) at T = 250 K, which is easily achievable with a one stage TE cooler.

Gain and noise of high-performance long wavelength superlattice infrared detectors

We experimentally investigate the noise and gain of high-performance long-wavelength superlattice (SL) infrared photodetectors. We compare a recently demonstrated SL heterodiode, which exhibits an electrical gain much larger than unity, with a SL photodetector without gain to show that the electrical gain in these devices originates from the device structure rather than from the SL absorber. We directly measure the noise spectra of a high performance SL, and show that 1/f noise is not intrinsically present in these structures. However, we find that a very large extraneous frequency-dependent noise can be generated by side-wall leakage currents. Analysis of the noise and gain indicate that the exact dependence of the shot noise on the dark current in these SL heterodiodes can be different from that in the diffusion-limited diode homojunction.

Demonstration of a 1024

We describe the demonstration of a 1024 × 1024 pixel long-wavelength infrared focal plane array based on an InAs-GaSb superlattice absorber surrounded by an electron-blocking and a hole-blocking unipolar barrier. An 11.5-μm cutoff focal plane without antireflection coating based on this complementary barrier infrared detector design has yielded noise equivalent differential temperature of 53 mK at operating temperature of 80 K, with 300 K background and f/2 cold-stop.

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We demonstrate a long wavelength type-II superlattice (T2SL) complementary barrier infrared detector (CBIRD) with a double broken-gap junction bottom contact structure designed to reduce material growth demands without diminishing performance. Simulation suggests generation-recombination dark current suppression is the result of placing the electrical junction in the wide-gap hole barrier region, away from the metallurgical hole-barrier/absorber heterojunction. The lower turn-on bias of the modified CBIRD is explained in terms of junction properties. We suggest that minority carrier exclusion and extraction effects are partially responsible for the observed low diffusion-limited CBIRD dark current despite short T2SL minority carrier lifetimes.

1024 Pixel InAs–GaSb Superlattice Focal Plane Array

Continuous wave (CW) operation of single-mode distributed feedback interband cascade (IC) lasers has been demonstrated at temperatures up to 261 K near ~3.3 m with side-mode-suppression ratio greater than 20 dB. The electrical power consumption is less than 1.1 W over the entire operating range, which enables CW operation using only thermoelectric cooling from ambient temperatures.

Exclusion, extraction, and junction placement effects in the complementary barrier infrared detector

Surface leakage reduction has been achieved using BCl3/Cl2/CH4/H2/Ar inductively coupled plasma dry etching for pixel isolation of high performance long-wave infrared superlattice detectors. The leakage has been minimized by effectively increasing the surface resistivity by more than 7.4 times and decreasing the surface state density by more than 3.8 times. Through altering the etch mechanism, the dark current density was reduced by more than two orders of magnitude where a dark current of 1.01×10−5 A/cm2 at 200 mV was achieved at T=77 K for a 10.3 μm detector with a peak quantum efficiency value of 30% (without antireflection coating).

Distributed Feedback Mid-IR Interband Cascade Lasers at Thermoelectric Cooler Temperatures

Long-wavelength complementary barrier infrared detector (CBIRD) based on III-V material is hybridized to recently designed and fabricated 320 × 256 pixel format two-color read-out integrated circuit. The n-type CBIRD is characterized in terms of performance and thermal stability. This paper reports on the measured dark current density, noise equivalent difference temperature, quantum efficiency, responsivity, minimum resolvable difference temperature, and modulation transfer function.