Multiple energy proton implantation induced quantum well intermixing in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well infrared photodetectors

Quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) have been widely investigated both theoretically and experimentally because of their practical applications. Recently, a post growth technique of quantum well intermixing (QWI), ion implantation induced intermixing, has been used to tune the detection wavelength of QWIPs. Ion implantation is considered to be a very promising method of QWI due to its ability to selectively fine tune the band gap energies of photonic devices without any further processing and regrowth. In this work, multiple energy proton implants were performed to provide a homogeneous QWI across the whole quantum well region of QWIP so as to prevent the broadening of the IR spectral response. A 1.1 /spl mu/m wavelength shift was obtained with a small decrease of spectral full width half maximum (FWHM).