Author(s)

Xinghua Shi^1*, Quang Phan¹, Binbin Weng¹, Lance L. McDowell¹, Jijun Qiu^1,2, Zhihua Cai^1,2, Zhisheng Shi^1*

¹The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA.
²Nanolight, Inc., Norman, USA.

This paper provides a theoretical study and calculation of the specific detectivity-D* limit of photovoltaic (PV) mid-wave infrared (MWIR) PbSe n⁺-p junction detectors operating at both room temperature and TE-cooled temperature. For a typical PbSe p-type doping concentration of 2 × 10¹⁷ cm^-3 and with high quantum efficiency, the D* limits of a photovoltaic PbSe n⁺-p junction detector are shown to be 2.8 × 10¹⁰ HZ^1/2/W and 3.7 × 1010 HZ1/2/W at 300 K and 240 K, with cut-off wavelength of 4.5 μm and 5.0 μm, respectively. It is almost one magnitude higher than the current practical MWIR PV detector. Above 244 K, the detector is Johnson noise limited, and below 191 K the detector reaches background limited infrared photodetector (BLIP) D*. With optimization of carrier concentration, D* and BLIP temperature could be further increased.

PbSe, Lifetime, R₀A, Detectivity

Shi, X. , Phan, Q. , Weng, B. , McDowell, L. , Qiu, J. , Cai, Z. and Shi, Z. (2018) Study on the Theoretical Limitation of the Mid-Infrared PbSe N⁺-P Junction Detectors at High Operating Temperature. Detection, 6, 1-16. doi: 10.4236/detection.2018.61001.