Sensor performance and cut-off wavelength tradeoffs of III-V focal plane arrays

Infrared detector technologies engineered from III-V semiconductors such as strained-layer superlattice, quantum well infrared photodetectors, and quantum dot infrared photodetectors provide additional flexibility to engineer bandgap or spectral response cut-offs compared to the historical high-performance detector technology of mercury/cadmium/telluride. The choice of detector cut-off depends upon the sensing application for which the system engineer is attempting to maximize performance within an expected ensemble of operational scenarios that define objects or targets to be detected against specific environmental backgrounds and atmospheric conditions. Sensor performance is typically characterised via one or more metrics that can be modelled or measured experimentally. In this paper, the authors will explore the impact of detector cut-off wavelength with respect to different performance metrics such as noise equivalent temperature difference and expected target detection or identification ranges using analytical models developed for several representative sensing applications encompassing a variety of terrestrial atmospheric conditions in the mid-wave and long-wave infrared wavelength bands. The authors will also report on their review of recently published literature concerning the relationships between cut-off wavelength and the other detector performance characteristics such as quantum efficiency or dark current for a variety of detector technologies.