Development of High Performance Detector Technology for UV, SWIR and Mwir Applications

High performance detector technology is being developed in the ultraviolet (UV), Short Wavelength Infrared (SWIR) and Mid Wavelength Infrared (MWIR) bands for NASA Earth Sciences, defense, and commercial applications. We are developing GaN/AlGaN avalanche photodiodes (APDs) with high responsivities and gains of above 105. These detectors based on high crystalline quality metal organic chemical vapor (MOCVD) deposition technique and growth on lattice-matched GaN and AlN substrates to demonstrate high performance. We will discuss the growth and fabrication, characterization, and performance results of high gain UV-APDs utilizing wide-bandgap semiconductors. We are developing Ge on Si detector technology that covers the spectral band from visible to near infrared from 0.5-1.6 micron applications. We have demonstrated low noise detectors with p-i-n structure. We will discuss the growth, fabrication and characterization results of these detector arrays. We will also discuss the APD approach to demonstrate high gain for a vareity of NASA applications. We are developing Graphene based detector technology for NASA Earth sciences applications. We will discuss our approach by making use of Graphene and PbSe and combining the best of both materials. The objective of this work is to demonstrate Graphene based room temperature MWIR detectors (GrMWIR) and FPAs. The primary driver for this technology development is to enable a scalable, low cost, low power and small foot-print infrared technology component that can be of high performance, while opening doors for new earth observation measurement capability. High performance MWIR remote sensing on CubeSats requires low SWaP-C (size, weight and Power - Cost) components. MWIR spectral band of 2 to 5 micrometer is suitable for a variety of NASA applications.