Leaky electronic states for photovoltaic photodetectors based on asymmetric superlattices

The concept of leaky electronic states in the continuum is used to achieve room temperature operation of photovoltaic superlattice infrared photodetectors. A structural asymmetric InGaAs/InAlAs potential profile is designed to create states in the continuum with the preferential direction for electron extraction and, consequently, to obtain photovoltaic operation at room temperature. Due to the photovoltaic operation and virtual increase in the bandoffset, the device presents both low dark current and low noise. The Johnson noise limited specific detectivity reaches values as high as 1.4 × 10¹¹ Jones at 80 K. At 300 K, the detectivity obtained is 7.0 × 10⁵ Jones.