Recent progress on dark current characterization of very long-wavelength HgCdTe infrared photodetectors and HgCdTe APDs in SITP

Detection in the very long wave infrared range (LWIR, 12-15µm) using third-generation infrared focal plane array (FPAs) is essential for remote atmosphere sounding. Indeed, these wavelengths are particularly rich in information about humidity and CO2 levels and provide additional information about cloud structure and temperature profile across the atmosphere. However, the dark current characteristic and associated noise behavior of the HgCdTe photodiode in the wavelength range of 12-15µm, operating at ~77K, are very sensitive to surface passivation techniques as well as to surface material treatments. For current HgCdTe material and device technology, detection of LWIR and VLWIR energy is the subject of current research. Within this range of shrinking band-gaps in detector material, precise control of the quality of the surface passivation and treatment is of great importance. The underlying physics of dark current mechanism is theoretically investigated by using a previously developed simultaneous current extraction approach and numerical simulations. In addition, HgCdTe electron avalanche photodiodes (e-APD) have been widely used for low-flux and high-speed application. To better understand the dark current transport and electron-avalanche mechanism of the devices and optimize the structures, we perform accurate numerical simulations of the current-voltage characteristics and multiplication factor in planar and mesa homojunction (p-i-n) HgCdTe electron-avalanche photodiodes.