GaAs multilayer p⁺-i homojunction far-infrared detectors

A. G. U. Perera, H. X. Yuan, S. K. Gamage, W. Z. Shen, and M. H. Francombe
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303

H. C. Liu and M. Buchanan
Institute for Microstructural Sciences, National Research Council, Ottawa K1A OR6, Canada

W. J. Schaff
School of Electrical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853

ABSTRACT
A molecular beam epitaxy grown wavelength tunable GaAs p⁺-i homojunction interfacial work-function internal photoemission far-infrared detector is developed. The multilayer (p⁺-i-p⁺-i-...) detector structures consist of 2, 5, and 10 emitter layers. Experimental results are explained in terms of the number of emitter layers and the doping concentrations of the emitter layer. A detector with 10 multilayers and an emitter layer doping concentration (N_e) of 3×10¹⁸ cm^-3 shows a current responsivity of 2 A/W, an effective quantum efficiency of 9.2% (at 26.3 µm) with a cutoff wavelength of 85 µm and the noise equivalent power of 2.18×10^-12 W/(sqrt(Hz)) at 4.2K. © 1997 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(97)03207-6]

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