Tunable long-wavelength broad band asymmetric quantum well infrared photodetector

Abstract

We present a theoretical investigation of a GaAs/AlGaAs infrared detector consisting of three asymmetric quantum wells. Each well is designed to yield absorption and a photoresponse at peak wavelengths of 8.2 mu m, 9.5 mu m and 10.8 mu m respectively. The device operation is based on an intersubband bound to quasi-bound transition. Asymmetry in the barriers is shown to give rise to the dependence of the spectral line width on applied reverse bias.