Review of current progress in quantum dot infrared photodetectors

Quantum dot infrared photodetectors (QDIPs) have; made significant progress after their early demonstration about a decade ago. The progress made by QDIP technology over the last few years is reviewed and compared with quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs). It is shown that the performance of QDIPs has significantly improved using novel architectures such as dots-in-a-well designs, and large-format (1 K X 1 K) focal plane arrays have been realized. However, even though there are significant reports of performance parameters better than QWIPs from single-pixel devices. QDIP-based focal plane arrays are still a factor of 3-5 worse in terms of noise equivalent temperature difference. The reasons for the performance gap and the key scientific and technological challenges that need to be 1, addressed to achieve the full potential of QD-based technology are discussed. (C) 2010 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. Weinheim