MWIR superlattice detectors integrated with substrate side-illuminated plasmonic coupler

Detectivity of mid-wave infrared (MWIR) detectors based on InAs/GaSb type II strained layer superlattices (T2SLs) can be significantly enhanced at select wavelengths by integrating the detector with a back-side illuminated plasmonic coupler. The application of a simple metal-T2SL structure directly on the GaSb substrate can result in radiation losses into the substrate due to the low refractive index of T2SL layer. However, insertion of a higher refractive index material, such as germanium (Ge), into the metal-SLS structure can confine the surface plasmon waveguide (SPW) modes to the surface. In this work, metal (Au)-Ge-T2SL structures are designed with an approximately 100 nm thick Ge layer. The T2SL layer utilized a p-i-n detector design with 8 monolayers (MLs) InAs/8 MLs GaSb. A plasmonic coupler was then realized inside the 300 μm circular apertures of these single element detectors by the formation of a corrugated metal (Au) surface. The T2SL single element detector integrated with an optimized plasmonic coupler design increased the quantum efficiency (QE) by a factor of three at an operating temperature of 77 K and 3 to 5 μm illumination wavelength, compared to a reference detector structure, and each structure exhibited the same level of dark current.