New Type Far IR and THz Schottky Barrier Detectors for Scientific and Civil Application

The results of an experimental investigation into a new type of VLWIR detector based on hot electron gas emission and architecture of the detector are presented and discussed. The detectors (further referred to as HEGED) take advantage of the thermionic emission current change effect in a semiconductor diode with a Schottky barrier (SB) as a result of the direct transfer of the absorbed radiation energy to the system of electronic gas in the quasimetallic layer of the barrier. The possibility of detecting radiation having the energy of quantums less than the height of the Schottky diode potential barrier and of obtaining a substantial improvement of a cutoff wavelength to VLWIR of the PtSi/Si detector has been demonstrated. The complementary contribution of two physical mechanisms of emanation detection—“quantum” and hot electrons gas emission—has allowed the creation of a superwideband IR detector using standard silicon technology. 1. IR and THz Detectors for Space Astronomy The reception of television images of various objects in the far IR and submillimetric band of a spectrum is of great interest in solving many scientific and applied problems. Such problems can be met in astronomy, fault detection, medicine, and safety systems [1]. In recent years very close attention has been paid to the development of various THz systems; however, the problem of creating the most progressive staring detectors for the far IR and THz band of the spectrum is far from resolved [2]. Over the set of the major characteristics the most demanding requirements are imposed on staring detectors (or FPAs) for optoelectronic systems (OESs) for exoatmospheric astronomy. As a rule, if detectors of such class can be created, they can also be used for many other purposes. The published modern detectors for space OES are shown in Table 1. Table 1: Comparative table of the main parameters of FPAs for astronomy. The table shows the following.(1)The size of the focal plane used within the astronomical systems is significantly larger than the photosensitive surface of any existing FPA as well as any FPA under development. The large size is extremely undesirable and is only allowable to some extent in survey system channels and narrow field of view spectrometry channels.(2)Among the existing FPAs it would appear that the best characteristics belong to HAWAII-2 FPA, which provides output noise less than 7 electrons and the least value of NEP limited by background fluctuations. This FPA, as well as VLWIR-002, was designed using VLSI silicon technology. The production of FPAs based on VLSI