Type-II antimonide-based superlattices for the third generation infrared focal plane arrays

In recent years, the type-II superlattice (T2SL) material platform has seen incredible growth in the understanding of its material properties which has lead to unprecedented development in the arena of device design. Its versatility in band-structure engineering is perhaps one of the greatest hallmarks of the T2SL that other material platforms are lacking. In this paper, we discuss advantages of the T2SL, specifically the M-structure T2SL, which incorporates AlSb in the traditional InAs/GaSb superlattice. Using the M-structure, we present a new unipolar minority electron detector coined as the P-M-P, the letters which describe the composition of the device. Demonstration of this device structure with a 14μm cutoff attained a detectivity of 4×10 ¹⁰ Jones (-50mV) at 77K. As device performance improves year after year with novel design contributions from the many researchers in this field, the natural progression in further enabling the ubiquitous use of this technology is to reduce cost and support the fabrication of large infrared imagers. In this paper, we also discuss the use of GaAs substrates as an enabling technology for third generation imaging on T2SLs. Despite the 7.8% lattice mismatch between the native GaSb and alternative GaAs substrates, T2SL photodiodes grown on GaAs at the MWIR and LWIR have been demonstrated at an operating temperature of 77K.