Mid-infrared detector using a heavily doped backplane to the detector structure

摘要

A mid-infrared detector that uses a heavily doped material (e.g., indium arsenide) as a backplane to the detector structure to improve detector performance and fabrication cost. The infrared detector includes a substrate and a backplane of heavily doped material consisting of two or more of the following materials: indium, gallium, arsenic and antimony. The backplane resides directly on the substrate. The infrared detector further includes a photodetector (e.g., type-I or type-II strained layer superlattice (SLS) nBn photodetector, type-I or type-II SLS pn junction photodetector, a quantum-dot infrared photodetector, a quantum well infrared photodetector, a homogeneous material pn junction photodetector) residing directly on the backplane. Additionally, the infrared detector may include a metal structure residing directly on the photodetector. In this manner, the absorption of electromagnetic energy in the photodetector is enhanced.