Antimonide superlattice complementary barrier infrared detector (CBIRD)

The nearly lattice-matched InAs/GaSb/AlSb (antimonide) material system offers tremendous flexibility in realizing high-performance infrared detectors. Antimonide-based superlattice infrared absorbers can be customized to have cutoff wavelengths ranging from the short-wave infrared (SWIR) to the very long-wave infrared (VLWIR). They can be used in constructing sophisticated heterostructures to enable advanced infrared photodetector designs. In particular, they facilitate the construction of unipolar barriers, which can block one carrier type but allow the un-impeded flow of the other. Unipolar barriers are used to implement the barrier infrared detector (BIRD) design for increasing the collection efficiency of photo-generated carriers, and reducing dark current generation without impeding photocurrent flow. We report our recent efforts in achieving state-of-the-art performance in antimonide superlattice based long-wavelength infrared photodetectors using a complementary barrier infrared detector (CBIRD) design.