Performance Characteristics of an Infrared Photodetector Using Intersuband Junctions in Quantum Wells Based on Gallium Nitride

Abstract

A simulation procedure for analyzing the electrical and optical characteristics of an AlGaN/GaN intersubbandquantum well middle-wavelength infrared photodetector is presented. The photoconductive gain spectrumwas simulated by coupling the drift-diffusion and capture-escape models in the active region of the devicestructure and by ignoring the contribution of radiative emission. It was shown that the photodetector at zero biasis sensitive over a spectral range from 4 to 6 μm, with the peak absorption occurring at 4.64 μm. The dependenceof the available photocurrent on both the wavelength and the angle of incidence of an unpolarized monochromaticbeam of light was also evaluated. An assessment of the dark current characteristics was estimated at varioustemperatures.

Keywords

• infrared radiation
• quantum well
• intersubband transition
• simulation
• capture-escape model
• gallium nitride
• optical gain
• optoelectronics
• absorption
• photodetector