Development of Dilute Nitride SL Technology for VLWIR Detectors

Epitaxial Technologies' overall objective is to develop innovative detector technologies that can be used to produce enhanced quantum efficiency and high detectivity VLWIR sensors that can operate at high temperatures. The goal of Phase I will be to investigate dilute nitride strain layer superlattice material structures that are capable of enhanced gain and detectivity and then grow and fabricate them to achieve detectivity in excess of 1E10 Jones to establish feasibility of the detector concept. We will accomplish this by designing and growing dilute nitride-based strained layer superlattice detector structures and by fabricating and testing the detectors. During Phase II, we will finalize the material structure, growth process, and fabrication process of the detectors. Further in Phase II, we will design, fabricate, and test 64 x 64 FPAs and demonstrate high operating temperatures as well as high pixel uniformity and improved resolution with reduced noise.