Quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) optimization based on dark current models evaluation

Abstract

In this work we evaluate different dark current models applied in QWIPs. In order to avoid empirical parameters we calculate the sequential tunneling probability of the lowest energy state to reproduce the dark current properties. Using the same arguments, the photocurrent is replaced by the tunneling probability modulated by the optical matrix element. Considering the different tunneling models presented in literature we apply a genetic algorithm to evaluate the models role on the election of the optimized infrared sensor. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.