High Performance Infrared Focal Plane Arrays with Advanced Quantum Structures

The goal of this SBIR effort is to develop an alternative technology for a new generation of high-performance type-II superlattice (SL) detectors that are suitable for MDA applications in the spectral region from 7 to 11 um and beyond and that out-perform detectors that are based on existing technology. Type-II systems offer potential advantages over MCT and conventional III-V semiconductor technologies; consequently, our focus in this effort will be to fully assess the use of type-II SL absorption regions in conjunction with recently demonstrated advanced detector architectures that are type-II-SL-based variants, in one way or another, of Maimon and Wicks’s high-operating-temperature (HOT) configuration. By varying the structure, compositions, and thicknesses of the SLs and by deliberately altering their interface structures, we will design, grow, fabricate, and test lattice-matched heterostructures whose detector properties are optimized for the wavelength bands of interest to MDA. The present Phase I proposal concentrates on three primary objectives in pursuit of the overall goal: (1) Design improved type-II detectors that incorporate blocking-layer architectures; (2) Grow and characterize a series of samples appropriate for evaluating detector material quality; (3) Grow, fabricate and test single-element prototype detectors.