Resonator-quantum well infrared photodetectors

Abstract

We applied a recent electromagnetic model to design the resonator-quantum well infrared photodetector (R-QWIP). In this design, we used an array of rings as diffractive elements to diffract normal incident light into parallel propagation and used the pixel volume as a resonator to intensify the diffracted light. With a proper pixel size, the detector resonates at certain optical wavelengths and thus yields a high quantum efficiency (QE). To test this detector concept, we fabricated a number of R-QWIPs with different quantum well materials and detector geometries. The experimental result agrees satisfactorily with the prediction, and the highest QE achieved is 71%.