NINTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TERAHERTZ ELECTRONICS 101 The physics of THz QWIPs

Abstract — In this work simple theoretical models are developed to ex-plore the physics of quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) over a range of detection wavelengths spanning the mid- and far-infrared (Tera-hertz) regions of the spectrum. It has been shown that at low temperatures the dark current can vary as λ4. However, a model of the wavelength de-pendence of the responsivity, which includes the effect of the quantum well width on the capture probability and quantum efficiency, suggests that the responsivity will be higher for the far-infrared wavelengths than it is for the mid-infrared. Keywords—Terahertz, quantum well infrared photodetectors, qwip, far-infrared I