Comparative study of infrared photodetectors based on quantum wells (QWIPs) and quantum dots (QDIPs)

Abstract: This master’s thesis deals with studies of lateral and vertical carrier transport Dot-in- a-Well (DWELL) Quantum Dot Infrared Photodetectors (QDIPs). During the pro ject, devices have been developed and tested using a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spec- trometer with the purpose to find the processes governing the flow of photocurrent in the different kinds of detectors, the dark current magnitude in the vertical Quantum Dot Infrared Photodetector (QDIP) and the Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) and the light polarization dependences for the vertical QDIP and the QWIP. The lateral carrier transport DWELL QDIP was found to have poor conduction in the well mainly due to re-trapping of electrons in this region. The main process gov- erning the flow of photocurrent for this type of device at 77K is photo-excitation from the Quantum Dot (QD)s to the excited state in the Quantum Well (QW) and further thermal excitation. If the electrons are mainly transported in the matrix or the well at 77K is presently not clear. For the vertical carrier transport DWELL QDIP at 77K, the wavelength response could be tuned by altering the applied voltage. At higher voltages, the dominant process was found to be photo-excitation from the QDs to the excited state in the QW followed by thermal assisted tunneling into the GaAs-matrix. At lower voltages, photo-excitation from the QDs directly into the the GaAs-matrix was the predominant process. The dark current level in the vertical QDIPs was found to be 1.5 to 5 orders of magnitude smaller than for the QWIP measured at 77K. Furthermore, the QDIP was found to be close to polarization independent. As expected the QWIP had a reduced sensitivity to normal incident light. The existence of this signal was attributed to interface scattering of light inside the device.