Enhancement of operation temperature of InAs∕GaAs quantum-dot infrared photodetectors with hydrogen-plasma treatment

Postprocess hydrogen treatment is performed over fabricated ten-period InAs∕GaAs quantum-dot infrared photodetectors. While keeping similar spectral responses at the same applied voltage, a reduced dark current is observed for the H-plasma-treated device, which is attributed to the suppression of surface leakage-current induced by surface damage during device processing. The significant reduction in dark current also enhanced the operation temperature of the device up to 100K. Also observed are the smoothed-out mesa edges after the H-plasma treatment, which results in trapezoidal mesa edges. In this case, a longer propagation length in the device of the reflected incident light at the mesa edge would enhance the normal-incident absorption ratio of the H-plasma-treated device.