Physics of non-adiabatic transport and field-domain effect in quantum-well infrared photodetectors

Abstract

A previous theory for studying the distribution of non-uniform fields in multiple-quantum-well photodetectors under an ac voltage is generalized by including non-adiabatic space-charge-field effects. Numerical calculations indicate that field-domain effects are only important at high temperatures or high voltages when both injection and sequential-tunneling currents are significant. On the other hand, it is found that the non-adiabatic effects included in this generalized theory become significant at low temperatures and low voltages when field-domain effects are negligible. In order to explain the non-adiabatic charge-density fluctuations quantum-statistically, a non-adiabatic differential equation is derived based on the self-consistent Hartree model by using a shifted Fermi–Dirac model for the local fluctuation of electron distributions. The non-adiabatic effect is found to cause an “equilibrium” state variation with time under an ac voltage.