Infrared detector with non-cooled quantum well structure
AssigneeThomson-CSF
InventorsEmmanuel Rosencher, Borge Vinter, Vincent Berger, Daniel Kaplan, Fran.cedilla.ois Micheron
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Abstract
A detector with quantum structure comprising a small-gap semiconductor material inserted between two large-gap semiconductor materials, the structure comprising a coupling grating between the wave to be detected and the detector zone constituted by the small-gap material. Under these conditions, the detector zone may have a very small thickness (typically of the order of 1,000 .ANG.) and lead to a detectivity, limited by the dark current, that is high.
Claims7
An optical wave guide detector with quantum structure comprising a stack of layers of semiconductor materials on a substrate with an electromagnetic wave detection zone, wherein the stack of layers comprises a layer of semiconductor material with low gap energy having a thickness of about 1000 .ANG. constituting a detection zone, contained between first and second layers of a semiconductor material with high gap energy, and wherein the detector comprises a coupling grating on the stack of layers to obtain efficient coupling between the optical wave to be detected and the detector zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.