POSTGROWTH TUNING OF QUANTUM-WELL INFRARED DETECTORS BY RAPID THERMALANNEALING

The peak detection wavelength of an operational quantum-well infrared photodetector structure has been red shifted using rapid thermal annea ling to partially intermix the well and barrier layers. Successive ann eals at 850-degrees-C were used to tune an 8.13 muM detector continuou sly out to 9.13 muM. All of the fabricated detectors were operational in spite of very long annealing times of up to 300 s. The peak spectra l responsivity at a device current of 10 muA dropped from 0.62 to 0. 1 2 A/W after the longest anneal time, but the broadband responsivity on ly dropped by a factor of 3 due to a simultaneous increase in the dete ction spectral bandwidth.