Simulation of Performance of Quantum Well Infrared Photodetectors

摘要

In this thesis the performance of a step quantum well infrared photodetector, designed by Kevin Lantz (June 2002) and experimentally studied by Michael Touse (September 2003) and Yeo Hwee Tiong (December 2004), was simulated in Matlab using the transfer matrix method. The results, obtained by the Matlab problem, are compared with the experimental results, in an attempt to make inferences about the optimum way of designing QWIP detectors. Simulation of the above implies numerical solution of the Schroedinger equation, using algorithms and methods, which give accurate results. In our approach, the transfer matrix method (TMM) was used with exponentials and Airy functions to represent the solutions to Schroedinger equation under zero and non-zero bias, respectively. The calculated results were compared with the experimental data and found to provide a good agreement which validated the accuracy of the model employed. In the final section of the thesis we examine and simulate in Matlab the application of the extended Kalman filtering (EKF) to an infrared photodetector as a target tracking mechanism to both maneuvering and non- maneuvering targets. When we used one sensor for tracking, the results were reliable provided that the target did not maneuver. In the case of a maneuvering target the results were significantly improved when we used both sensors for tracking.