Short infrared wavelength quantum cascade detectors based on m-plane ZnO/ZnMgO quantum wells

Jollivet, Arnaud; Hinkov, Borislav; Pirotta, Stefano; Hoang, Hue Thi; Derelle, Sophie; Jaeck, Julien; Tchernycheva, Maria; Colombelli, R.; Bousseksou, Adel; Hugues, Maxime; Biavan, Nolwenn Le; Tamayo-Arriola, Julen; Bajo, Miguel Montes; Rigutti, Lorenzo; Hierro, A.; Strasser, G.; Chauveau, J.-M.; Julien, F. H.

doi:10.1063/1.5058120

Cited by 26 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Quantum cascade technology hosts very powerful and versatile tools for mid-IR gas- and liquid-phase spectroscopy 2 , 14 , 26 , 48 – 50 . The ability to operate an unbiased QCL as a high-performance photodetector 51 – 53 , enabled the realization of monolithic integrated QCL and QCD, noted as a QCLD device 29 . It features excellent spectral overlap between laser and detector 29 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A mid-infrared lab-on-a-chip for dynamic reaction monitoring

et al. 2022

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Mid-infrared spectroscopy is a sensitive and selective technique for probing molecules in the gas or liquid phase. Investigating chemical reactions in bio-medical applications such as drug production is recently gaining particular interest. However, monitoring dynamic processes in liquids is commonly limited to bulky systems and thus requires time-consuming offline analytics. In this work, we show a next-generation, fully-integrated and robust chip-scale sensor for online measurements of molecule dynamics in a liquid solution. Our fingertip-sized device utilizes quantum cascade technology, combining the emitter, sensing section and detector on a single chip. This enables real-time measurements probing only microliter amounts of analyte in an in situ configuration. We demonstrate time-resolved device operation by analyzing temperature-induced conformational changes of the model protein bovine serum albumin in heavy water. Quantitative measurements reveal excellent performance characteristics in terms of sensor linearity, wide coverage of concentrations, extending from 0.075 mg ml−1 to 92 mg ml−1 and a 55-times higher absorbance than state-of-the-art bulky and offline reference systems.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A mid-infrared lab-on-a-chip for dynamic reaction monitoring

et al. 2022

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“…While the epitaxial growth of high-quality m-plane ZnO layers with up to monolayer precision could be realized in the past [45][46][47][48], ISB absorptions at room temperature [49,50] or the realization of room temperature (mid-infrared) QCDs [51], could just recently be demonstrated in m-plane Zn(Mg)O devices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Etching of m-plane Zn(Mg)O epitaxial films and its impact on surface leakage currents

Hinkov

Hoang

Hugues

et al. 2021

Semicond. Sci. Technol.

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Zinc oxide is a novel material system for mid-infrared and THz optoelectronics. Especially its non-polar m-plane orientation is a promising candidate for the design of devices like quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) and detectors (QCDs). But for their realization novel fabrication schemes are needed. We present a new inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) process for etching of m-Zn(Mg)O heterostructures in a CH 4 -based chemistry. The process has been optimized for smooth vertical sidewalls together with high selectivity towards a SiN etch mask. This was achieved by combining the RIE etching with wet chemical etching in strongly diluted HCl. Similar to various types of semiconductor-based optoelectronic materials and devices (Sidor et al 2016 J. Electron. Mater. 45 4663-7; Ma et al 2016 Opt. Express 24 7823), including other wide-gap semiconductors like (In)GaN (Zhang et al 2015 Nanotechnology 26), we observe surface leakage currents in etched m-plane Zn(Mg)O structures. We show that they depend on the applied etching process and surface treatment techniques as well as the barrier composition in the Zn(Mg)O heterostructures. In addition, a treatment in hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) yields a significant surface leakage current suppression up to several orders of magnitude.

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“…While being extensively studied, an underexplored yet extremely interesting property of ZnO is its large optical phonon energy (approximately 72 meV) compared with those of GaAs and (In, Ga)As commonly used for the intersubband optoelectronic devices. Even though the p doping of ZnO remains a huge challenge, it does not hinder ZnO from being a candidate for unipolar devices based on intersubband transitions (ISBTs), such as quantum cascade detectors (QCDs) [11,12], phononpolariton lasers [13], and quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) [14], especially in the THz range at high temperature [15]. In fact, for ISBTs below the optical phonon energy of ZnO [e.g., in the terahertz (THz) range], the population inversion of THz QCLs is significantly enhanced at high temperature due to the suppressed optical phonon emission rate, thus significantly enhancing the high temperature operation of THz QCLs [16,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observation of Intersubband Absorption in ZnO Coupled Quantum Wells

et al. 2019

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Intersubband transitions in ZnO material systems are predicted to be promising candidates for infrared and terahertz (THz) optoelectronic devices due to their unusual material properties. In particular, the temperature performance of THz quantum cascade lasers is postulated to be significantly enhanced using ZnO material systems due to their large optical phonon energy. Taking a step forward toward that goal, intersubband transitions in ZnO/Mg x Zn 1−x O asymmetric coupled quantum wells are observed on a nonpolar m plane ZnO substrate. Two absorption peaks are observed in the energy range from approximately 250 meV to approximately 410 meV at room temperature, unambiguously demonstrating the interwell coupling in the asymmetric coupled quantum wells. A theoretical model taking into account the interaction between intersubband transitions shows reasonable overall agreement with the experimental results, thus proving the strong coupling nature of the investigated system. As the building block of complex quantum structures based on intersubband transitions, the results presented show great potential applications of ZnO/Mg x Zn 1−x O material systems in infrared and THz optoelectronics and physics.

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Short infrared wavelength quantum cascade detectors based on m-plane ZnO/ZnMgO quantum wells

Cited by 26 publications

References 21 publications

A mid-infrared lab-on-a-chip for dynamic reaction monitoring

A mid-infrared lab-on-a-chip for dynamic reaction monitoring

Etching of m-plane Zn(Mg)O epitaxial films and its impact on surface leakage currents

Observation of Intersubband Absorption in ZnO Coupled Quantum Wells

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