Opto-electronic Properties of Mid-Wavelength: n Type II InAs/InAs1−x Sb x and Hg1−x Cd x Te

Abstract

There is significant interest in mid-wavelength type II strained layer superlattices (SLSs) and HgCdTe material systems for background limited performance, operating at significantly higher temperature, T ≥ 150 K, than InSb, T ≈ 80–90 K. A precise knowledge of the electronic and optical properties of these materials is desirable since they determine detector performance and are needed for input parameters in self-consistent physics-based predictive models. Recently, data on the optical absorption coefficient, and the hole minority carrier lifetime has become available, suggesting that in the extrinsic region the limiting recombination processes in mid-wavelength type II Ga-free SLSs are radiative and Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH). These findings provide the opportunity for comparisons with mid-wavelength HgCdTe. The comparisons show that the radiative recombination coefficients are similar; however, the SRH lifetime limited to 9 μs for the SLS implies that the dark current density is expected to be limited by bulk generation–recombination (G–R) SRH processes for temperatures below 160 K; hence requiring heterojunction designs to suppress the G–R dark currents and be diffusion limited. Mid-wavelength infrared HgCdTe photodiodes are shallow p+n photovoltaic devices and because of the very long SRH hole lifetime are diffusion radiatively limited photodiodes down to 80 K.