Advanced far infrared blocked impurity band detectors based on germanium liquid phase epitaxy
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
This research has shown that epilayers with residual impurity concentrations of 5 x 1013 cm-3 can be grown by producing the purest Pb available in the world. These epilayers have extremely low minority acceptor concentrations, which is ideal for fabrication of IR absorbing layers. The Pb LPE growth of Ge also has the advantageous property of gettering Cu from the epilayer and the substrate. Epilayers have been grown with intentional Sb doping for IR absorption on lightly doped substrates. This research has proven that properly working Ge BIB detectors can be fabricated from the liquid phase as long as pure enough solvents are available. The detectors have responded at proper wavelengths when reversed biased even though the response did not quite reach minimum wavenumbers. Optimization of the Sb doping concentration should further decrease the photoionization energy of these detectors. Ge BIB detectors have been fabricated that respond to 60 cm-1 with low responsivity. Through reduction of the minority residual impurities, detector performance has reached responsivities of 1 A/W. These detectors have exhibited quantum efficiency and NEP values that rival conventional photoconductors and are expected to provide a much more sensitive tool for new scientific discoveries in a number of fields, including solid state studies, astronomy, and cosmology.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., Engineering Div., Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 674712
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL-41810; ON: DE98056111; CNN: Contract NASA W17605; Contract NASA A59513CBVC; TRN: AHC29820%%166
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: DN: Thesis submitted to the Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (US); TH: Thesis (Ph.D.); PBD: May 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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