High operating temperature plasmonic infrared detectors

Abstract

III–V semiconductor type-II superlattices (T2SLs) are a promising material system with the potential to significantly reduce the dark current of, and thus realize high-performance in, infrared photodetectors at elevated temperatures. However, T2SLs have struggled to meet the performance metrics set by the long-standing infrared detector material of choice, HgCdTe. Recently, epitaxial plasmonic detector architectures have demonstrated T2SL detector performance comparable to HgCdTe in the 77–195 K temperature range. Here, we demonstrate a high operating temperature plasmonic T2SL detector architecture with high-performance operation at temperatures accessible with two-stage thermoelectric coolers. Specifically, we demonstrate long-wave infrared plasmonic detectors operating at temperatures as high as 230 K while maintaining dark currents below the “Rule 07” heuristic. At a detector operating temperature of 230 K, we realize 22.8% external quantum efficiency in a detector absorber only 372 nm thick (∼λ0/25) with a peak specific detectivity of 2.29 × 109 cm Hz1∕2 W−1 at 9.6 μm, well above commercial detectors at the same operating temperature.