Heterojunction and superlattice detectors for infrared to ultraviolet

Abstract

The interest in Infrared and Ultraviolet detectors has increased immensely due to the emergence of important applications over a wide range of activities. Detectors based on free carrier absorption known as Hetero-junction Interfacial Workfunction Internal Photoemission (HEIWIP) detectors and variations of these heterojunction structures to be used as intervalence band detectors for a wide wavelength region are presented. Although this internal photoemission concept is valid for all semiconductor materials systems, using a well-studied III–V system of GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs to cover a wide wavelength range from UV to far-infrared (THz) is an important development in detector technology. Using the intervalence band (heavy hole, light hole and split off) transitions for high operating temperature detection of mid Infrared radiation is also discussed. A promising new way to extend the detection wavelength threshold beyond the standard threshold connected with the energy gap in a GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs system is also presented. Superlattice detector technology, which is another promising detector architecture, can be optimized using both Type I and Type II heterostructures. Here the focus will be on Type II Strained Layer (T2SL) Superlattice detectors. T2SL Superlattices based on InAs/(In,GA)Sb have made significant improvements demonstrating focal plane arrays operating around 80K and with multiple band detection capability. A novel spectroscopic method to evaluate the band offsets of both heterojunction and superlattice detectors is also discussed.