Quantum Dot Infrared Photodetectors

First stage presentation for

Under the guidance of

Infrared radiation

VLWIR > 15 m < 0.83 eV

SWIR = 0.7 - 3 m 1.77 - 0.4 MWIR = 3 - 8 m 0.41 - 0.15 eV

LWIR = 8 - 15 m 0.15 - 0.083 eV

Image: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbas

Applications of Infrared detectors

Military
oTarget acquisition oNight vision

Astronomy
oInfrared astronomy

Industry
oInspection of performance in engines, generators

Medical
oInfrared imaging diagnosis

Infrared Detectors

Thermal detectors Measure the heat generated by the absorbed radiation Response time is slow Cooling is not necessary Examples Bolometers Thermocouples Pyro electric materials

Photonic detectors Measure the response of the charge carriers to the absorbed radiation Response time is faster Cooling is necessary Examples HgCdTe detectors InAs detectors Quantum Well detectors Quantum Dot detectors

Photon detectors
Respond to the IR radiation by changing the electrical properties Incremental increase for every photon absorbed Photo excitation is across a band gap or other such barrier Photons with energy higher than the band gap or barrier are absorbed The detector is transparent for photons with lower energies Formation of Excitons-bound electron-hole pair

Photo excitation in a band to band photodetector

HgCdTe (MCT) Detectors

Band to band detector Bulk detector Hg1-xCdxTe alloy is used Wavelength is tunable from 0.7m to 25m High detectivity

Disadvantages: Difficulty in processing Spatial variation of band gap in the detector Large sized detectors are not possible due to smaller substrate Sensitive dependence on composition requires precise control over gr Expensive

This motivated the development of intersubband detectors using popular III-V

Image: P. Norton, HgCdTe detectors, OPTO-ELECTRONICS REVIEW 10(3), 15

Confined structures
A small band gap semiconductor is embedded in a large band gap semiconductor The offset in the conduction and valence bands act as a potential well for electrons Energy levels within the Conduction band are raised and quantized Excitons are more stable in confined structures

Density of states in different confined semiconductors

Bulk (no confinement)

Quantum Well (confinement in 1 direction)

Quantum Wire(confinement in 2 directions)

Quantum Dot(confinem ent in 3 direction)

DOS graphs from Introductory Nanoscience, Masuro Kuno

Quantum dots
Quantum dots are semiconductors whose excitons are spatially confined in all three directions. They have electronic properties intermediate between those of bulk semiconductors and those of discrete molecules. These quantum dots act as 3 d potential wells and can be modelled using the particle-in-a-box problem Since the energy levels in the quantum dots are discrete these are often referred to as artificial atoms Discrete levels result in very sharp absorption spectra for a particular size of quantum dots

Solving for energy levels

We need to solve for the Hamiltonian We need to know the shape of the dot to obtain the structure potentials Strong confinement: structure potentials coulombic term This allows us to solve the Hamiltonian for holes and electrons separately Further approximations can be made using the knowledge of the shape of the dot B. J. Riel solves the problem for a parabolic dot to obtain the harmonic potential Iike well. Equidistant energy levels are obtained

Self assembly of Quantum dots

Growth mode depends
Binding energy of adatoms on substrate Strain energy due to lattice mismatch Lattice parameters: InAs-6.06 A GaAs- 5.65A

Stranski Krastanov growth mode is observed

Initial deposition- Wetting layer Further deposition- Pyramidal quantum dots

QWIP and QDIP

Multiple stacks of Quantum wells or quantum dots

GaAs is capped over QDs

Image : H.C. Liu, OPTO-ELECTRONICS REVIEW 11(1), 15 (2003)

Basic band Structure without Bias

Band Structure with bias

Dark current mechanisms

1.Ground State tunnelling
1.Thermally assisted tunnelling 1.Thermionic emission

Variations in the QDIP structure

Dot-in-a-well structure(DWELL)
The electrons are excited for the QD levels to the QW levels. Thickness of the QW can be varied to vary the absorption energy.

Image:Sarath D. Gunapala et al, APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 94, 111107 2009

Performance parameters in Detectors

Responsivity:
oHigh responsivity is desired oThe output can be increased by adding amplifiers oAlso increases the noise level oLow noise is desired

Noise Noise spectral density Signal to noise ratio

oHigh SNR is desired oSNR changes with Input

Specific detectivity Good parameter for comparing detectors of different sizes

Noise equivalent power

oUsed to determine SNR for a given input

Analysis using BLIP condition

Background limited performance(BLIP) Condition:
Photo generated carriers = Noise in the detector Noise is assumed to be due to Thermally generated carriers

Philips[5] obtains expressions for and for MCT , QWIP and QDIP to compare the detectors

Analysis using BLIP condition

is an important parameter

QDs with = 1 performance is at par with MCT detectors

Phillips, Jamie, "Evaluation of the fundamental properties of quantum dot infrared detectors", Journal of Applied Physics, Vol 91, No 7,

Reduction of QD size distribution

Rapid thermal annealing at 650oC to 800oC Increase in QD size homogeneity Increase in QD size Reduction in well depth Blue shift of the peak Decrease in peak width

Effect of rapid thermal annealing on PL spectra of SK quantum

Disadvantages with SK Quantum dots

Most of the deposited InAs is used in the formation of the wetting layer. Since a large lattice mismatched material is used, there is larger strain in the material. Larger strain implies that less number of stacked layers on QDs are possible The wetting layer introduces more QW levels which contribute in the tunneling component of the dark current To counter these problems Sub monolayer Quantum dots can be utilized

Sub monolayer QDs

In this technique, less than a monolayer of InAs is deposited on top of GaAs. The deposited InAs forms islands on top of the substrate. These are islands form quantum dots.

Image:Sarath D. Gunapala et al, APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 94, 1

a)InAs SML dots are deposited b)GaAs SML deposition c)InAs SML deposition d)GaAs deposition e)Repeat c) and d) Quantum dots with larger aspect ratio

Image : Shao, Jiayi. "Engineered quantum dots for infrared photode

Advantages of Sub monolayer QDs

Only 1/3 to monolayer is required Less strain per layer Hence more stacks of QD layers can be formed as compared to SK dots. The entire strained material is used in the 3d structure formation, while in SK quantum dots a significant fraction is used in the formation of the wetting layer. No wetting layer implies better confinement of the charge carriers. This results in decrease in the dark current.

Advantages (contd)
SML can be used as DWELL structure or a confinement enhanced structure SML QDs can be realized in a variety of insert/host matrix semiconductors(CdSe-ZnSe QDs) Strain along the growth direction is oscillatory
Correlated or Anticorellated QDs in adjacent layers

The lateral dimensions of SML QDs is smaller than SK QDs (5-10nm) The areal density of QDs is around ~1011 cm-2 . This is higher than that of SK QDs. This implies larger active area for the detector

Progress in Fabrication
Ting et al fabricated an SML QDIP structure Megapixel (1024x1024) focal plane array operating @ 80K DWELL design was used

Image obtained using the detector

SML QDIP results in literature

Large increase in Responsivity at 45 degree incidence Necessary to use a grating to increase detectivity Lateral dimensions of SML QDs are large First excited state is too deeply bound Smaller SML QDs with high areal density will improve performance Absorption strength can be increased by stacking layers closely

References
1.Ting et al, Sub monolayer quantum dot infrared photodetectors, Appl Phy. Lett, 94, 111107 (2009) 2.Krishna et. al, Structural and Luminescence characteristics of cycled sub monolayer InAs/GaAs quantum dots with room temperature emission at 1.3m, J. Appl. Phys., Vol.86,No. 11, 6135-6138(1999)
3. Shao, Jiayi. "Engineered quantum dots for infrared photodetectors." (2012). 4.B. J. Riel, An introduction to self-assembled quantum dots, Am. J. Phys. 76 (8), August 2008 5.Phillips, Jamie, "Evaluation of the fundamental properties of quantum dot infrared detectors", Journal of Applied Physics, Vol 91, No 7, (2002) 4590-4594 6.A. Rogalski, "Infrared detectors: an overview," Infrared Physics & Technology, vol. 43, pp. 187-210, Jun-Oct 2002. 7.Ledentsov, N. N., D. Bimberg, F. Hopfer, A. Mutig, V. A. Shchukin, A. V. Savelev, G. Fiol et al. "Sub monolayer quantum dots for high speed surface emitting lasers." Nanoscale Research Letters 2, no. 9 (2007): 417-429.