Analysis Of The Periodic Extrinsic Infrared (PEIR) Photoconductor

P. E. Welsh; R. J. Schwartz

doi:10.1117/12.960660

11 October 1989 Analysis Of The Periodic Extrinsic Infrared (PEIR) Photoconductor

P. E. Welsh, R. J. Schwartz

Proceedings Volume 1107, Infrared Detectors, Focal Plane Arrays, and Imaging Sensors; (1989) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.960660
Event: SPIE 1989 Technical Symposium on Aerospace Sensing, 1989, Orlando, FL, United States

Abstract

An infrared photoconductor, designated as the Periodic Extrinsic InfraRed (PEIR) photoconductor, is proposed. The PEIR photoconductor will be useful for detecting wavelengths from 7 μm (1400 cm-1) to longer than 100 μm (100 cm-1). A PEIR photoconductor is made up of heavily doped layers separated by lightly doped layers. The heavily doped layers are doped such that an impurity band forms but are not doped high enough to cause the impurity band to merge with the conduction or valence band. The lightly doped layers are used to confine the carriers in the impurity bands and consequently, conduction can only occur due to carriers excited to the conduction (n-type device) or valence (p-type device) band. Radiation excites the carriers from the impurity band to the conduction or valence band. The impurity band layers are thin enough that even if the electric field in the impurity band layers is small, there is a high probability the excited carrier will scatter into the lightly doped layer and be swept away by the electric field in the lightly doped layer. In many ways, the PEIR photoconductor is similar to the Blocked Impurity Band (BIB) detector which has one impurity band layer and one blocking layer. The difference is that the Poole-Frenkel effect and tunneling out of the impurity band which limit the operation of a BIB detector appear to be much less serious problems in a PEIR photoconductor. The importance of this result is that a PEIR photoconductor should 1) have higher absorption rates (due to higher impurity band dopant concentrations) compared to a BIB detector designed to detect the same wavelength and 2) have the capability of detecting longer wavelengths with increasingly better quantum efficiencies than a BIB detector.

Citation Download Citation

P. E. Welsh and R. J. Schwartz "Analysis Of The Periodic Extrinsic Infrared (PEIR) Photoconductor", Proc. SPIE 1107, Infrared Detectors, Focal Plane Arrays, and Imaging Sensors, (11 October 1989); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.960660

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
12 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Photoresistors

Sensors

Ionization

Electrons

Absorption

Infrared radiation

Infrared photography

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years