Quantum efficiency investigations of type-II InAs/GaSb midwave infrared superlattice photodetectors

We present in this paper a comparison between different type-II InAs/GaSb superlattice (T2SL) photodiodes and focal plane array (FPA) in the mid-wavelength infrared domain to understand which phenomenon drives the performances of the T2SL structure in terms of quantum efficiency (QE). Our measurements on test photodiodes suggest low minority carrier diffusion length in the "InAs-rich" design, which penalizes carriers' collection in this structure for low bias voltage and front side illumination. This analysis is completed by a comparison of the experimental data with a fully analytic model, which allows to infer a hole diffusion length shorter than 100 nm. In addition, measurements on a FPA with backside illumination are finally presented. Results show an average QE in the 3-4.7 mu m window equal to 42% for U-bias = -0.1 V, 77K operating temperature and no anti-reflection coating. These measurements, completed by modulation transfer function and noise measurements, reveal that the InAs-rich design, despite a low hole diffusion length, is promising for high performance infrared imaging applications. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.