Ga-free InAs/InAsSb T2SL XBn detector is now a reliable candidate for high-performance focal plane arrays in the MWIR (3-5μm) domain. However, this T2SL is a very anisotropic quantum structure having a type-IIb band offset alignment where electrons are rather delocalized all over the structure while holes are strongly confined in deep InAsSb quantum well. This configuration could penalize the absorption and the hole minority carrier transport but MWIR detector device without anti reflection coating shows quantum efficiency higher than 50%. Considering results of specific measurements and band structure calculation, possible carrier transport scenario is presented to explain such performance.
In this paper, we study the influence of three different etching depths on electrical and electro-optical properties of nonpassivated T2SL nBn Ga-free pixel detector having a 5μm cut-off wavelength at 150 K. The study shows the strong influence of lateral diffusion length on the shallow etched pixel properties and therefore, the need to perform etching through the absorber layer to avoid lateral diffusion contribution. The lowest dark current density was recorded for a deep-etched detector, on the order of 1 × 10-5 A/cm2 at 150 K and operating bias equal to – 300 mV. The quantum efficiency of this deep-etched detector is measured close to 55 % at 150 K, without anti-reflection coating. A comparison between electro-optical performances obtained on the three etching depths demonstrates that the etching only through the middle of the absorber layer (Mid-etched) allows eliminating lateral diffusion contribution while preserving a good uniformity between the diode’s performance. Such result is suitable for the fabrication of IR focal plane arrays (FPA).
In this communication, we report on electrical and electro-optical characterizations of InAs/InAsSb Type-II superlattice (T2SL) MWIR photodetector, showing a cut-off wavelength at 5 μm. The device, made of a barrier structure in XBn configuration, was grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on GaSb substrate. At 150K, dark current measurements shows a device in the Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) regime but with an absolute value comparable to the state-of-the-art. A quantum efficiency of 50% at the wavelength of 3 μm for a 3 μm thick absorption layer is found in simple pass configuration and front-side illumination. Combined with lifetime measurements performed on dedicated samples through time resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) technique, mobility is extracted from these measurements by using a theoretical calculation of the quantum efficiency thanks to Hovel’s equations. Such an approach helps us to better understand the hole minority carrier transport in Ga-free T2SL MWIR XBn detector and therefore to improve its performance.
Stability over time has recently become a figure of merit of major importance to compare the performances of infrared focal plane arrays (FPA) of different technologies. Indeed, this parameter dictates how often the calibration of operational electro-optical systems has to be done, and thus reflects the availability of the system during an operational mission. The stability over time is generally estimated through fixed pattern noise (FPN) and residual fixed pattern noise (RFPN) measurements after a two-point correction. However, each laboratory or industrial has its own protocols and criteria, such that published results cannot be easily compared. Recent studies also showed that random telegraph signal (RTS) noise, which leads to flickering pixels, can strongly affect the image quality, so the question arises as to wether these RTS pixels have an effect on RFPN. In this paper, we describe our experimental protocol to evaluate the stability over time of an FPA and to count up/classify flickering pixels. We then present the results obtained on a T2SL MWIR Integrated Detector Dewar Cooler Assembly (IDDCA) provided by IRnova. Our measurements show that the stability over time of the T2SL MWIR IDDCA are excellent: first, in terms of FPN/RFPN; then, in terms of RTS noise with only a few blinking pixels. We also show that the RTS pixels having an effect on the RFPN are fully detected by the algorithm used to rule out defective pixels before calculating RFPN.
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