Enhancement of operation temperature of InAs/GaAs quantum-dot infrared photodetectors with hydrogen-plasma treatment

Abstract

Postprocess hydrogen treatment is performed over fabricated ten-period InAs/GaAs quantum-dot infrared photodetectors. While keeping similar spectral responses at the same applied voltage, a reduced dark current is observed for the H-plasma-treated device, which is attributed to the suppression of surface leakage-current induced by surface damage during device processing. The significant reduction in dark current also enhanced the operation temperature of the device up to 100 K. Also observed are the smoothed-out mesa edges after the H-plasma treatment, which results in trapezoidal mesa edges. In this case, a longer propagation length in the device of the reflected incident light at the mesa edge would enhance the normal-incident absorption ratio of the H-plasma-treated device. (C) 2009 American Vacuum Society. [DOI:10.1116/1.3196781]