Nanotechnology is occurring simultaneously in almost every field with strong interdisciplinary applications which have unique and important characteristics for potential novel and high performance devices. Quantum dots grown by epitaxial self-assembly via Stranski- Krastanov growth mode have many favorable properties for infrared sensing. Because of their very small size and three-dimensional confinement, the electronic energy levels are quantized and discrete. These quantum effects lead to a unique property, “phonon bottleneck”, which might enable the high operating temperature of infrared sensing which usually requires cryogenic cooling. Here we report a focal plane array (FPA) based on an epitaxial self-assembled quantum dot infrared detector (QDIP). The device structure containing self-assembled In0.68Ga0.32As quantum dots with a density around 3×1010 cm-2 was grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD). Using different structures, we successfully developed QDIPs with a peak photoresponse around 5 μm and 9 μm. High peak detectivities were achieved at 77 K from both QDIPs. By stacking both device structures, we demonstrated a two-color QDIP whose peak detection wavelength could be tuned from 5 μm to 9 μm by changing the bias. 256×256 detector arrays based on 5 μm and 9 μm-QDIPs were fabricated with standard photolithography, dry etching and hybridization to a read-out integrated circuit (ROIC). We demonstrated thermal imaging from our FPAs based on QDIPs.
Colloidal quantum dots for thermal infrared sensing and imaging
