Quantum cascade laser is one of the most sophisticated semiconductor devices. Its technology requires extremely high precision and layers quality. Device performance is limited by thermal extraction form laser core. One of solutions is to apply highly resistivity epitaxial material acting as insulating layer on top of the QCL. Present work describes consequent steps of elaboration of MOVPE technology of Fe-compensated InP layers for further applications in quantum cascade lasers.

Short-period 10 monolayers InAs/10ML GaSb type-II superlattices have been deposited on a highly lattice-mismatched GaAs (001), 2° offcut towards <110> substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. This superlattice was designed for detection in the mid-wave infrared spectral region (cut-off wavelength, λcut-off = 5.4 µm at 300 K). The growth was performed at relatively low temperatures. The InAs/GaSb superlattices were grown on a GaSb buffer layer by an interfacial misfit array in order to relieve the strain due to the ~7.6% lattice-mismatch between the GaAs substrate and type-II superlattices. The X-ray characterisation reveals a good crystalline quality exhibiting full width at half maximum ~100 arcsec of the zero-order peak. Besides, the grown samples have been found to exhibit a change in the conductivity.

In this paper questions of optimization of growth conditions in the method of molecular beam epitaxy for creation of high-efficient quantum dot infrared photodetectors are considered. As a model material system for theoretical investigations, heterostructures with germanium-silicon quantum dots on the silicon surface are chosen. For calculations of the dependencies of quantum dots array parameters on synthesis conditions the kinetic model of growth of differently shaped quantum dots based on the general nucleation theory is proposed. The theory is improved by taking into account the change in free energy of nucleation of an island due to the formation of additional edges of islands and due to the dependence of surface energies of facets of quantum dots on the thickness of a 2D wetting layer during the Stranski–Krastanow growth. Calculations of noise and signal characteristics of infrared photodetectors based on heterostructures with quantum dots of germanium on silicon are done. Dark current in such structures caused by thermal emission and barrier tunneling of carriers, as well as detectivity of the photodetector in the approximation of limitation by generation-recombination noises are estimated. Moreover, the presence of dispersion of quantum dots by size is taken into account in the calculations of the generation-recombination noises. Results of calculations of the properties of structures with quantum dots and their dependencies on growth parameters, as well as the characteristics of quantum dot photodetectors are presented. Comparison of the estimated parameters of quantum dots ensembles and the characteristics of quantum dot photodetectors with experimental data is carried out.

We present an overview of our technological achievements in the implementation of detector structures based on mercury cadmium telluride (MCT) heterostructures and nanostructures for IR and THz spectral ranges. We use a special MBE design set for the epitaxial layer growth on (013) GaAs substrates with ZnTe and CdTe buffer layers up to 3” in diameter with the precise ellipsometric monitoring in situ. The growth of MCT alloy heterostructures with the optimal composition distribution throughout the thickness allows for the realization of different types of many-layered heterostructures and quantum wells to prepare the material for fabricating single- or dual-band IR and THz detectors.

We also present the two-color broad-band bolometric detectors based on the epitaxial MCT layers that are sensitive in 150–300-GHz subterahertz and infrared ranges from 3 to 10 μm, which operate at the ambient or liquid nitrogen temperatures as photoconductors, as well as the detectors based on planar HgTe quantum wells. The design and dimensions of THz detector antennas are optimized for reasonable detector sensitivity values. A special diffraction limited optical system for the detector testing was designed and manufactured. We represent here the THz images of objects hidden behind a plasterboard or foam plastic packaging, obtained at the radiation frequencies of 70, 140, and 275 GHz, respectively.

Accurate determination of material parameters, such as carrier lifetimes and defect activation energy, is a significant problem in the technology of infrared detectors. Among many different techniques, using the time resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy allows to determine the narrow energy gap materials, as well as their time dynamics. In this technique, it is possible to observe time dynamics of all processes in the measured sample as in a streak camera. In this article, the signal processing for the above technique for Hg(1-x)CdxTe with a composition x of about 0.3 which plays an extremely important role in the mid-infrared is presented. Machine learning algorithms based on the independent components analysis were used to determine components of the analyzed data series. Two different filtering techniques were investigated. In the article, it is shown how to reduce noise using the independent components analysis and what are the advantages, as well as disadvantages, of selected methods of the independent components analysis filtering. The proposed method might allow to distinguish, based on the analysis of photoluminescence spectra, the location of typical defect levels in HgCdTe described in the literature.

In this paper, the authors report strain-balanced M-structures InAs/GaSb/AlSb/GaSb superlattice growth on GaSb substrates using two kinds of interfaces (IFs): GaAs-like IFs and InSb-like IFs. The in-plane compressive strain of 60-period and 100-period InAs��/GaSb/AlSb��/GaSb with different InAs (��) and AlSb (��) monolayers are investigated. The M-structures InAs/GaSb/AlSb/GaSb represent type II superlattices (T2SL) and at present are under intensive investigation. Many authors show theoretical and experimental results that such structures can be used as a barrier material for a T2SL InAs/GaSb absorber tuned for long-wave infrared detectors (8 μm–14 μm). Beside that, M-structure can also be used as an active material for short-wave infrared detectors to replace InAs/GaSb which, for this region of infrared, are a big challenge from the point of view of balancing compression stress. The study of InAs/GaSb/AlSb/GaSb superlattice with the minimal strain for GaSb substrate can be obtained by a special procedure of molecular beam epitaxy growth through special shutters sequence to form both IFs. The authors were able to achieve smaller minimal mismatches of the lattice constants compared to literature. The high-resolution X-ray diffraction measurements prove that two types of IFs are proper for balancing the strain in such structures. Additionally, the results of Raman spectroscopy, surface analyses of atomic force microscopy, and differential interference contrast microscopy are also presented. The numerical calculations presented in this paper prove that the presence of IFs significantly changes the energy gap in the case of the investigated M-structures. The theoretical results obtained for one of the investigated structures, for a specially designed structure reveal an extra energy level inside the energy gap. Moreover, photoluminescence results obtained for this structure prove the good quality of the synthesized M-structures, as well as are in a good agreement with theoretical calculations.