Impact of conductivity type change in InAs/GaSb superlattice on low frequency noise of photoconductive long-wavelength infrared detectors

Abstract

This Letter focuses on the 1/f noise properties of InAs/GaSb superlattice (SL), which is a promising material for infrared radiation detection and represents one of the alternatives to well-established bulk HgCdTe material. The InAs/GaSb SL material changes the conductivity type at temperature T ≈ 190 K, which has been correlated with measured 1/f noise. It was shown that 1/f noise comes from resistance fluctuations of linear noise sources. According to the electronic transport and 1/f noise models, the observed 1/f noise is connected with the hole conductivity component rather than the electron conductivity component, which is absent or at least immeasurable, even though electron conductivity governs the total conductivity of the InAs/GaSb SL. In the high-temperature region, the 1/f noise of InAs/GaSb SL is significantly smaller than that of InAs/InAsSb SL. The results favor InAs/GaSb SL material over InAs/InAsSb SL for photoconductive infrared detectors operating at room temperature.