The first decade of the 21st-century has seen a rapid development in infrared photodetector technology. At the end of the last millennium there were two dominant IR systems, InSb- and HgCdTe-based detectors, which were well developed and available in commercial systems. While these two systems saw improvements over the last twelve years, their change has not nearly been as marked as that of the quantum-based detectors (i.e., QWIPs, QDIPs, DWELL-IPs, and SLS-based photodetectors). In this paper, we review the progress made in all of these systems over the last decade plus, compare the relative merits of the systems as they stand now, and discuss where some of the leading research groups in these fields are going to take these technologies in the years to come.

Progress in Infrared Photodetectors Since 2000

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/1308082.pdf

III-V compound SC for optoelectronic devices

Abstract Infrared photodetectors (IRPDs) have become important devices in various applications such as night vision, military missile tracking, medical imaging, industry defect imaging, environmental sensing, and exoplanet exploration. Mature semiconductor technologies such as mercury cadmium telluride and III–V material-based photodetectors have been dominating the industry. However, in the last few decades, significant funding and research has been focused to improve the performance of IRPDs such as lowering the fabrication cost, simplifying the fabrication processes, increasing the production yield, and increasing the operating temperature by making use of advances in nanofabrication and nanotechnology. We will first review the nanomaterial with suitable electronic and mechanical properties, such as two-dimensional material, graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, and metal oxides. We compare these with more traditional low-dimensional material such as quantum well, quantum dot, quantum dot in well, semiconductor superlattice, nanowires, nanotube, and colloid quantum dot. We will also review the nanostructures used for enhanced light-matter interaction to boost the IRPD sensitivity. These include nanostructured antireflection coatings, optical antennas, plasmonic, and metamaterials.

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Emerging technologies for high performance infrared detectors

We demonstrate a multi-spectral polarization sensitive mid-infrared dots-in-a-well (DWELL) photodetector utilizing surface-plasmonic resonant elements, with tailorable frequency response and polarization selectivity. The resonant responsivity of the surface-plasmon detector shows an enhancement of up to 5 times that of an unpatterned control detector. As the plasmonic resonator involves only surface patterning of the top metal contact, this method is independent of light-absorbing material and can easily be integrated with current focal plane array processing for imaging applications.

/pdf/a-multi-spectral-and-polarization-selective-surface-plasmon-52y2zsbtqn.pdf

A multi-spectral and polarization-selective surface-plasmon resonant mid-infrared detector

We demonstrate a multispectral polarization sensitive midinfrared dots-in-a-well photodetector utilizing surface-plasmonic resonant elements, with tailorable frequency response and polarization selectivity. The resonant responsivity of the surface-plasmon detector shows an enhancement of up to five times that of an unpatterned control detector. As the plasmonic resonator involves only surface patterning of the top metal contact, this method is independent of light-absorbing material and can easily be integrated with current focal plane array processing for imaging applications.

/pdf/a-multispectral-and-polarization-selective-surface-plasmon-3jslxriuqm.pdf

A multispectral and polarization-selective surface-plasmon resonant midinfrared detector

The authors report the design, growth, fabrication, and characterization of a low-strain quantum dots-in-a-well (DWELL) infrared photodetector. This novel DWELL design minimizes the inclusion of the lattice-mismatched indium-containing compounds while maximizing the absorption cross section by enabling larger active region volume. The improved structure uses an In0.15Ga0.85As∕GaAs double well structure with Al0.10Ga0.90As as the barrier. Each layer in the active region was optimized for device performance. Detector structures grown using molecular beam epitaxy were processed and characterized. This new design offers high responsivity of 3.9A∕W at a bias of 2.2V and a detectivity of 3×109 Jones at a bias of 2.2V for a wavelength of 8.9μm. These detectors offer significant improvement in the responsivity while retaining the long wave infrared spectral properties of the InAs∕In0.15Ga0.85As∕GaAs DWELL. These detectors if coupled with improved noise characteristics could enable higher temperature operation of ...

A. Siroya

Papers

Low-strain InAs∕InGaAs∕GaAs quantum dots-in-a-well infrared photodetector