Review of nipi structures of photon detection

The basic properties of nipi structures are discussed in terms of their potential interest for photon detection. A comparison of different semiconductors (GaAs, InSb, InAs, PbTe) for the realization of either short-period nipis with strong overlap of the e-h wavefunctions or long-period nipis without overlap is presented. The advantages of long-period nipis are demonstrated with PbTe p-n-p and p-i-n-i-p structures. Barrier leakage is shown to be of substantial importance for gaining the detector response in selectively contacted structures which are based on narrow-gap semiconductors.