"XB n " barrier photodetectors for high sensitivity and high operating temperature infrared sensors

Abstract

A barrier photodetector is a device in which the light is absorbed in a narrow bandgap semiconductor layer whose bands remain essentially flat or accumulated at the operating bias so that all carrier depletion is excluded. In a conventional photodiode below a threshold temperature <i>T</i>₀, typically 130-150K for MWIR devices, the dark current is due to Generation-Recombination (G-R) centres in the depletion layer. In a barrier detector, the absence of depletion in the narrow bandgap semiconductor ensures that the G-R contribution to the dark current is negligible. The dark current in the barrier detector is thus dominated by the diffusion component, both above and below <i>T</i>₀. Therefore, at a given temperature below <i>T</i>₀, a barrier detector will exhibit a lower dark current than a conventional photodiode with the same cut-off wavelength. Alternatively, for a given dark current, a barrier detector will operate at a higher temperature than a conventional photodiode, provided that this temperature is below <i>T</i>₀. Device architectures are presented for barrier detectors with photon absorbing layers based on InAs_1-xSb_x alloys and type-II InAs/GaSb superlattices (T2SL). The thermionic and tunneling components of the dark current are analyzed and shown to be negligible for typical device parameters. An operating temperature of ~150K is estimated for a MWIR barrier detector with f/3 optics and a cut-off wavelength of 4.2&mu;.