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Strain-balanced InAs/InAsSb superlattices offer access to the mid- to long-wavelength infrared region with what is essentially a ternary material system at the GaSb lattice constant. The absorption coefficients of InAs/InAsSb superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (100)-oriented GaSb substrates are measured at room temperature over the 30 to 800 meV photon energy range using spectroscopic ellipsometry, and the miniband structure of each superlattice is calculated using a Kronig-Penney model. The InAs/InAsSb conduction band offset is used as a fitting parameter to align the calculated superlattice ground state transition energy to the measured absorption onset at room temperature and to the photoluminescence peak energy at low temperature. It is observed that the ground state absorption coefficient and transition strength are proportional to the square of the wavefunction overlap and the ground state absorption coefficient approaches a maximum value of around 5780 cm-1 as the wavefunction overlap approaches 100%. The absorption analysis of these samples indicates that the optical joint density of states is weakly dependent on the period thickness and Sb content of the superlattice, and that wavefunction overlap is the principal design parameter in terms of obtaining strong absorption in these structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The InAs/InAsSb type-II superlattice materials studied to date for infrared detector applications have been residually n-type, but p-type absorber regions with minority carrier electrons can result in increased photodiode quantum efficiency, RoA, and detectivity. Therefore, Be-doped InAs/InAsSb superlattices were investigated to determine the p-type InAs/InAsSb superlattice material transport properties essential to developing high quality photodiode absorber materials. Hall measurements performed at 10K revealed that the superlattice converted to p-type with Be-doping of 3 × 1016 cm–3 and the hole mobility reached 24 400 cm2/Vs. Photoresponse measurements at 10K confirmed the 175 meV bandgap and material optical quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements reveal a minority carrier lifetime of >412 ns at 77 K under low excitation for a long-wavelength infrared InAs/InAs0.72Sb0.28 type-II superlattice (T2SL). This lifetime represents an order-of-magnitude increase in the minority carrier lifetime over previously reported lifetimes in long-wavelength infrared InAs/Ga1-xInxSb T2SLs. The considerably longer lifetime is attributed to a reduction of non-radiative recombination centers with the removal of Ga from the superlattice structure. This lifetime improvement may enable background limited T2SL long-wavelength infrared photodetectors at higher operating temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strain-balanced type-II InAs/InAs1-xSbx superlattices with various compositions (x = 0.22, 0.23, 0.37) and different layer thicknesses (tInAs = 7 nm, tInAsSb = 3.3, 2.3, 2.0 nm, respectively) have been grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on GaSb substrates. X-ray diffraction revealed narrow satellite peaks (full-width-half-maximum of <100 arc sec), indicative of uniform superlattice periodicity and excellent crystallinity, which was also corroborated by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy observations. Despite relaxation, low-temperature photoluminescence measurements showed peaks at 6.7 μm and 5.8 μm, while photoconductance results showed strong spectral response up to 200 K, when the photoresponse onset was 8.6 μm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]