Room temperature operation of mid-infrared InAsSb based photovoltaic detectors with an InAlSb barrier layer grown on GaAs substrates.

In this paper, InAsSb-based hetero-junction photovoltaic detector (HJPD) with an InAlSb barrier layer was grown on GaAs substrates. By using technology computer aided design (TCAD), a design of a barrier layer that can achieve nearly zero valance band offsets was accomplished. A high quality InAsSb epitaxial layer was obtained with relatively low threading dislocation density (TDD), calculated from a high-resolution X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement. This layer showed a Hall mobility of 15,000 cm/V⋅s, which is the highest mobility among InAsSb layers with an Sb composition of around 20% grown on GaAs substrates. Temperature dependence of dark current, photocurrent response and responsivity were measured and analyzed for fabricated HJPD. HJPD showed the clear photocurrent response having a long cutoff wavelength of 5.35 μm at room temperature. It was observed that the dark current of HJPDs is dominated by the diffusion limited current at temperatures ranging from 200K to room temperature from the dark current analysis. Peak responsivity of HJPDs exhibited the 1.18 A/W and 15 mA/W for 83K and a room temperature under zero bias condition even without anti-reflection coating (ARC). From these results, we believe that HJPDs could be an appropriate PD device for future compact and low power dissipation mid-infrared on-chip sensors and imaging devices.