SWIR nightglow radiation detection around room temperature with depletion-engineered HgCdTe on alternative substrates

Can Livanelioglu; Yıgıt Ozer; Serdar Kocaman

doi:10.1364/JOSAB.37.000056

Journal of the Optical Society of America B
Vol. 37,
Issue 1,
pp. 56-66
(2020)
•https://doi.org/10.1364/JOSAB.37.000056

SWIR nightglow radiation detection around room temperature with depletion-engineered HgCdTe on alternative substrates

Can Livanelioglu, Yıgıt Ozer, and Serdar Kocaman

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Can Livanelioglu, Yıgıt Ozer, and Serdar Kocaman, "SWIR nightglow radiation detection around room temperature with depletion-engineered HgCdTe on alternative substrates," J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 37, 56-66 (2020)

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Abstract

Night vision applications utilize the reflected nightglow radiation in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) atmospheric window. Nevertheless, the low light intensity values require dark current densities on the order of ${\rm nA}/{{\rm cm}^2}$ for detection around room temperature. Currently, with new device architectures and developments in growth and surface passivation, very low dark current density values are achievable for 1.7 µm cutoff InGaAs detectors near room temperature, and such detectors seem to be the leading choice for the nightglow detection applications. On the other hand, HgCdTe has not been thoroughly investigated for low-cost nightglow detection with 1.7 µm cutoff, primarily due to its manufacture expenses for lattice-matched CdZnTe growth. In this study, we analyze the nightglow radiation detecting performance of the alternative substrate HgCdTe detectors near room temperature (${\rm T} = {270}\;{\rm K}$) using computer simulations. It is assessed that alternative substrate HgCdTe cannot attain the required dark current density values due to Shockley–Read–Hall (SRH) recombination in the depletion region, if the heterojunction photodiode structure is adopted. To overcome the problem, depletion-engineered devices are designed where the depletion region is embedded within a larger bandgap HgCdTe, which suppresses the depletion region SRH $\sim{1300}$ times. This reduces the dark current density to the desired order, for SRH lifetimes achievable with alternative substrate growth. Dark current densities as low as ${0.26}\;{{\rm nA/cm}^2}$ are shown to be possible for an SRH lifetime of $\tau = {3}\;{\unicode{x00B5}{\rm s}}$ while maintaining the quantum efficiency $\sim{85}\% $. With this approach benefiting from alternative substrates and depletion engineering, HgCdTe can achieve InGaAs nightglow imaging performances near room temperature, and can benefit from less costly manufacture and broader application capability for nightglow radiation detection.

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Parameter	Value
$n_{i}$ [46,47]	( $5.24256 - 3.5729 x - 4.74019 T \times 10^{- 4} + 1.25942$
	$\times 10^{- 2} \times (x T) - 5.77046 x^{2} - 4.24123 \times 10^{- 6}$
	$\times T^{2} \times 10^{14} \times E_{g}^{0.75} \times T^{1.5} \times e^{- E g \times e / (2 k T)} {c m}^{- 3}$ )
$E_{g}$ [46,47]	$- 0.302 + 1.93 x + 5.35 \times 10^{- 4} \times (1 - 2 x) \times (- 1882 + T^{3}) \div (255.2 + T^{2}) - 0.81 x^{2} + 0.832 x^{3} e V$
$V_{a f f i n i t y}$ [46,47]	$4.23 - 0.813 \times (E_{g} - 0.083) e V$
$ε$ [46,47]	$(20.5 - 15.6 x + 5.7 x^{2}) ε_{0}$
$μ_{e}$ [46,47]	$9 \times 10^{8} \times (0.2 \div x)^{7.5} \div T^{2 (0.2 \div x) 0.6} {c m}^{2} / V s$
$μ_{h}$ [46,47]	$μ_{e} \div 100 {c m}^{2} / V s$
$m_{e}$ [46,47]	$1 \div - (0.6 + 6.333 \times (2 \div E_{g} + 1 \div (E_{g} + 1)))$
$m_{h}$ [46,47]	$0.55 \times m_{0}$

Device	Dark Current (T in K)	Quantum Efficiency
Device	Dark Current (T in K)	$λ = 1.5 µ m$	$λ = 1.6 µ m$
HgCdTe DEH ( $τ = 500 n s$ )	$0.76 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (270 K)	78.0%	70.0%
HgCdTe DEH ( $τ = 1 µ s$ )	$0.46 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (270 K)	81.8%	73.3%
HgCdTe DEH ( $τ = 3 µ s$ )	$0.26 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (270 K)	84.4%	75.5%
Teledyne InGaAs [9]	$0.19 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (273 K)	80–85%
	$0.44 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (280 K)
	$2.2 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (296 K)
Goodrich InGaAs [66]	$2 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (285.3 K)	$\approx 85 %$
AeriusInGaAs [67]	$0.26 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (273 K)	$> 70 %$
AeriusInGaAs [67]	$0.64 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (283 K)	$> 70 %$
Spectrolab InGaAs [68,69]	$0.5 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (280 K)	$> 80 %$
	$0.66 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (283 K)
	$0.7 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (288 K)
FLIRInGaAs [70]	$2.95 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (293 K)	NA

Parameter	Value
$n_{i}$ [46,47]	( $5.24256 - 3.5729 x - 4.74019 T \times 10^{- 4} + 1.25942$
	$\times 10^{- 2} \times (x T) - 5.77046 x^{2} - 4.24123 \times 10^{- 6}$
	$\times T^{2} \times 10^{14} \times E_{g}^{0.75} \times T^{1.5} \times e^{- E g \times e / (2 k T)} {c m}^{- 3}$ )
$E_{g}$ [46,47]	$- 0.302 + 1.93 x + 5.35 \times 10^{- 4} \times (1 - 2 x) \times (- 1882 + T^{3}) \div (255.2 + T^{2}) - 0.81 x^{2} + 0.832 x^{3} e V$
$V_{a f f i n i t y}$ [46,47]	$4.23 - 0.813 \times (E_{g} - 0.083) e V$
$ε$ [46,47]	$(20.5 - 15.6 x + 5.7 x^{2}) ε_{0}$
$μ_{e}$ [46,47]	$9 \times 10^{8} \times (0.2 \div x)^{7.5} \div T^{2 (0.2 \div x) 0.6} {c m}^{2} / V s$
$μ_{h}$ [46,47]	$μ_{e} \div 100 {c m}^{2} / V s$
$m_{e}$ [46,47]	$1 \div - (0.6 + 6.333 \times (2 \div E_{g} + 1 \div (E_{g} + 1)))$
$m_{h}$ [46,47]	$0.55 \times m_{0}$

Device	Dark Current (T in K)	Quantum Efficiency
Device	Dark Current (T in K)	$λ = 1.5 µ m$	$λ = 1.6 µ m$
HgCdTe DEH ( $τ = 500 n s$ )	$0.76 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (270 K)	78.0%	70.0%
HgCdTe DEH ( $τ = 1 µ s$ )	$0.46 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (270 K)	81.8%	73.3%
HgCdTe DEH ( $τ = 3 µ s$ )	$0.26 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (270 K)	84.4%	75.5%
Teledyne InGaAs [9]	$0.19 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (273 K)	80–85%
	$0.44 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (280 K)
	$2.2 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (296 K)
Goodrich InGaAs [66]	$2 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (285.3 K)	$\approx 85 %$
AeriusInGaAs [67]	$0.26 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (273 K)	$> 70 %$
AeriusInGaAs [67]	$0.64 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (283 K)	$> 70 %$
Spectrolab InGaAs [68,69]	$0.5 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (280 K)	$> 80 %$
	$0.66 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (283 K)
	$0.7 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (288 K)
FLIRInGaAs [70]	$2.95 {n A / c m}^{2}$ (293 K)	NA

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Journal of the Optical Society of America B