Quantum well infrared photodetectors hardiness to the non ideality of the energy band profile

TL;DR

This study investigates how non-idealities in the energy band profile, such as alloy composition gradients and doping randomness, affect the performance of Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors, showing their robustness to these imperfections.

Contribution

The paper provides experimental measurements and analysis demonstrating the robustness of QWIP performance against non-sharp and disordered potential profiles.

Findings

QWIP performance is resilient to alloy composition gradients.

Doping randomness has limited impact on detector characteristics.

Non-ideal energy band profiles do not significantly degrade QWIP performance.

Abstract

We report results on the effect of a non-sharp and disordered potential in Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors (QWIP). Scanning electronic transmission microscopy is used to measure the alloy profile of the structure which is shown to present a gradient of composition along the growth axis. Those measurements are used as inputs to quantify the effect on the detector performance (peak wavelength, spectral broadening and dark current). The influence of the random positioning of the doping is also studied. Finally we demonstrate that QWIP properties are quite robust with regard to the non ideality of the energy band profile.