High operating temperature midwave infrared photodiodes and focal plane arrays based on type-II InAs/GaSb superlattices

Abstract

The dominant dark current mechanisms are identified and suppressed to improve the performance of midwave infrared InAs/GaSb type-II superlattice photodiodes at high temperatures. The optimized heterojunction photodiode exhibits a quantum efficiency of 50% for 2 μm thick active region without any bias dependence. At 150 K, R0 A of 5100 ωcm2 and specific detectivity of 1.05× 1012 cm Hz0.5 /W are demonstrated for a 50% cutoff wavelength of 4.2 μm. Assuming 300 K background temperature and 2π field of view, the performance of the detector is background limited up to 180 K, which is improved by 25 °C compared to the homojunction photodiode. Infrared imaging using f/2.3 optics and an integration time of 10.02 ms demonstrates a noise equivalent temperature difference of 11 mK at operating temperatures below 120 K. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.