In this work we report simulation and experimental results for an MWIR HgCdTe photodetector designed by computer simulation and fabricated in a joint laboratory run by VIGO Sytems S.A. and Military University of Technology. The device is based on a modified N+pP+ heterostructure grown on 2”., epiready, semi-insulating (100) GaAs substrates in a horizontal MOCVD AIX 200 reactor.
The devices were examined by measurements of spectral and time responses as a function of a bias voltage and operating temperatures. The time response was measured with an Optical Parametric Oscillator (OPO) as the source of ~25 ps pulses of infrared radiation, tuneable in a 1.55–16 μm spectral range. Two-stage Peltier cooled devices (230 K) with a 4.1 μm cut-off wavelength were characterized by 1.6 × 1012 cm Hz1/2/W peak detectivity and < 1 ns time constant for V > 500 mV.
Analysis is performed of the contemporary views on the effect of ion etching (ion-beam milling and reactive ion etching) on physical properties of HgCdTe and on the mechanisms of the processes responsible for modification of these properties under the etching. Possibilities are discussed that ion etching opens for defect studies in HgCdTe, including detecting electrically neutral tellurium nanocomplexes, determining background donor concentration in the material of various origins, and understanding the mechanism of arsenic incorporation in molecular-beam epitaxy-grown films.
We review recently proposed concepts of infrared and terahertz photodetectors based on graphene van der Waals heterostructures and HgTe-CdHgTe quantum well heterostructures and demonstrate their potential.
In this paper, we present the electrical and electro-optical characterizations of an InAs/GaSb type-2 superlattice barrier photodetector operating in the full longwave infrared spectral domain. The fabricated detectors exhibited a 50% cut-off wavelength around 14 μm at 80 K and a quantum efficiency slightly above 20%. The dark current density was of 4.6 × 10 2 A/cm2 at 80 K and a minority carrier lateral diffusion was evaluated through dark current measurements on different detector sizes. In addition, detector spectral response, its dark current-voltage characteristics and capacitance-voltage curve accompanied by electric field simulations were analyzed in order to determine the operating bias and the dark current regimes at different biases. Finally, dark current simulations were also performed to estimate a minority carrier lifetime by comparing experimental curves with simulated ones.
Graphene applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices have been thoroughly and intensively studied since graphene discovery. Thanks to the exceptional electronic and optical properties of graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) materials, they can become promising candidates for infrared and terahertz photodetectors.
Quantity of the published papers devoted to 2D materials as sensors is huge. However, authors of these papers address them mainly to researches involved in investigations of 2D materials. In the present paper this topic is treated comprehensively with including both theoretical estimations and many experimental data.
At the beginning fundamental properties and performance of graphene-based, as well as alternative 2D materials have been shortly described. Next, the position of 2D material detectors is considered in confrontation with the present stage of infrared and terahertz detectors offered on global market. A new benchmark, so-called “Law 19”, used for prediction of background limited HgCdTe photodiodes operated at near room temperature, is introduced. This law is next treated as the reference for alternative 2D material technologies. The performance comparison concerns the detector responsivity, detectivity and response time. Place of 2D material-based detectors in the near future in a wide infrared detector family is predicted in the final conclusions.
In this study, the temperature influence on the spectral responsivity of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) used as a photoreceptor, combined to light source spectrum is correlated to electrical characteristics in order to propose an alternative method to estimate LED junction temperature, regardless of the absolute illumination intensity and based on the direct correlation between the integral of the product of two optical spectra and the photo-generated currents. A laboratory test bench for experimental optical measurements has been set in order to enable any characterizing of photoelectric devices in terms of spectral behaviour, in a wavelength range placed between 400–1000 nm, and of current-voltage characteristics as function of temperature by using two different illumination sources. The temperature is analysed in a range from 5°C up to 85°C, so as to evaluate thermal variation effects on the sensor performance. The photo-generated current of two LEDs with different peak wavelengths has been studied. Research has observed and mathematically analysed what follows: since the photo-generated current strictly depends on the combination between the spectral response of the photoreceptor and the lighting source response, it becomes possible to estimate indirectly the junction temperature of the LEDs by considering the ratio between the photogenerated currents obtained by using two different illumination sources. Such results may for one thing increase knowledge in the fields where LEDs are used as photo-detectors for many applications and for another, they could be extended to generic photodetectors, thus providing useful information in photovoltaic field, for instance.
In the past decade, there has been significant progress in development of the colloidal quantum dot (CQD) photodetectors. The QCD’s potential advantages include: cheap and easy fabrications, size-tuneable across wide infrared spectral region, and direct coating on silicon electronics for imaging, which potentially reduces array cost and offers new modifications like flexible infrared detectors. The performance of CQD high operating temperature (HOT) photodetectors is lower in comparison with detectors traditionally available on the global market (InGaAs, HgCdTe and type-II superlattices). In several papers their performance is compared with the semiempirical rule, “Rule 07” (specified in 2007) for P-on-n HgCdTe photodiodes. However, at present stage of technology, the fully-depleted background limited HgCdTe photodiodes can achieve the level of room-temperature dark current considerably lower than predicted by Rule 07. In this paper, the performance of HOT CQD photodetectors is compared with that predicted for depleted P-i-N HgCdTe photodiodes. Theoretical estimations are collated with experimental data for both HgCdTe photodiodes and CQD detectors. The presented estimates provide further encouragement for achieving low-cost and high performance MWIR and LWIR HgCdTe focal plane arrays operating in HOT conditions.
The semiempirical rule, “Rule 07” specified in 2007 for P-on-n HgCdTe photodiodes has become widely popular within infrared community as a reference for other technologies, notably for III-V barrier photodetectors and type-II superlattice photodiodes. However, in the last decade in several papers it has been shown that the measured dark current density of HgCdTe photodiodes is considerably lower than predicted by benchmark Rule 07. Our theoretical estimates carried out in this paper support experimental data. Graphene and other 2D materials, due to their extraordinary and unusual electronic and optical properties, are promising candidates for high-operating temperature infrared photodetectors. In the paper their room-temperature performance is compared with that estimated for depleted P i-N HgCdTe photodiodes. Two important conclusions result from our considerations: the first one, the performance of 2D materials is lower in comparison with traditional detectors existing on global market (InGaAs, HgCdTe and type- II superlattices), and the second one, the presented estimates provide further encouragement for achieving low-cost and high performance HgCdTe focal plane arrays operating in high-operating temperature conditions.