New formulas are derived to calculate the tunneling and thermionic dark currents in GaAs/Alx Ga1-xAs quantum well infrared detectors. Variation of the dark current (Id) with barrier width and doping density is systematically studied. It is shown that increasing the barrier width and/or decreasing the doping density in the well do not always reduce the dark current. Theoretical variation of Id with bias is compared with experimental data.

Date Published: 2 January 1998
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 3211, International Conference on Fiber Optics and Photonics: Selected Papers from Photonics India '96, (2 January 1998);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3211:
International Conference on Fiber Optics and Photonics: Selected Papers from Photonics India '96
J. P. Raina; P. R. Vaya, Editor(s)