High responsivity tunable step quantum well infrared photodetector

Abstract

In this thesis, the performance of a step quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP), which was designed to detect a laser spot at 1.05 m æ and IR radiation between 9.5 m æ to 10.5 m æ, was evaluated. In the far infrared (FIR), the maximum responsivity of the test detector at 10 K was measured at 1.02 A/W with a peak wavelength of 10.3 æm under a negative bias of 0.83 V. The D* at background limited infrared performance (BLIP) was measured at 9 8.0 10 cm Hz /W with 180o field of view. The BLIP temperature was found to be about 55 K. In addition, the FIR detection wavelength found shift with the amount of bias across the device. The amount of shift observed was 0.21 meV/KVcm-1 which is due to linear Stark effect associated with the step quantum well. The quantum well infrared detectors made of square quantum wells found to have an order of magnitude lower Stark shift originated from second order effects. This suggests that the step well infrared detector can have applications in tunable wavelength infrared detectors.