An InP-Based Mid-Wave Infrared Up-Converter Utilizing Cascade Carrier Transportation

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters 2016-06, Vol.28 (12), p.1371-1374
• Main Authors: Kang, Jian-Bin, Wang, Lei, Hao, Zhi-Biao, Wang, Chao, Xie, Li-Li, Wang, Lai, Wang, Jian, Xiong, Bing, Sun, Chang-Zheng, Han, Yan-Jun, Li, Hong-Tao, Luo, Yi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Absorption; cascade transportation; Current measurement; Dark current; III-V semiconductor materials; Indium phosphide; infrared up-converter; intersubband transition; Semiconductor device measurement; Transportation
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2016.2544378

Semiconductor-based up-conversion infrared (IR) photodetectors have the advantages of pixelless imaging and being free from thermal mismatch between photodetector and read-out integrated circuit. Profited by cascade carrier transportation, cascade IR up-converters (CIUPs) provide a fresh idea to ease the contradiction between dark current and responsivity. For GaAs-based mid-wave IR CIUP, a strained InGaAs/AlGaAs material system is an essential configuration, in spite of the limitation of lattice-mismatched epitaxy. An InGaAs/InAlAs material system lattice-matched to InP substrate is a promising alternative to the strained InGaAs/AlGaAs structures. In this letter, an InP-based mid-wave IR CIUP is demonstrated with a 4.7-μm peak response wavelength and 1.19-μm peak emission wavelength. For the up-conversion system, the dark-current-limited detectivity reaches 1.1×10 11 Jones at 78 K and 1.3 V CIUP bias, and the background-limited infrared performance condition is achieved at 107 K with the detectivity of 1.2 × 10 10 Jones.