Antimonide Narrow-Bandgap Semiconductor Infrared Optoelectronic Materials and Devices

Antimonide semiconductors primarily refer to compounds—including GaSb, AlSb, and InAs—that have lattice constants around 0.61 nm, as well as various multicomponent alloys derived from these materials. Among these systems, the InAs/GaSb superlattice exhibits a type-II band structure, which effectively suppresses Auger recombination and enables an ultra-wide infrared detection response covering the 2–30 μm spectral range. The InGaAsSb quantum well, on the other hand, features a type-I band structure and holds great promise for the development of high-power, narrow-linewidth lasers operating in the 2–4 μm wavelength region. Moreover, its modulation-doped heterojunctions display exceptionally high carrier mobility at room temperature, making them highly suitable for fabricating low-power, high-speed microelectronic devices. In recent years, with...

　　Antimonide semiconductors primarily refer to compounds such as GaSb, AlSb, and InAs—whose lattice constants are around 0.61 nm—as well as various multicomponent alloys derived from these materials. Among these systems, the InAs/GaSb superlattice exhibits a type-II band structure, which effectively suppresses Auger recombination and enables an ultra-wide infrared detection range spanning from 2 to 30 μm. The InGaAsSb quantum well features a type-I band structure and holds great promise for developing high-power, narrow-linewidth lasers in the 2–4 μm wavelength range. Moreover, its modulation-doped heterojunctions display exceptionally high electron mobility at room temperature, making them highly suitable for fabricating low-power, high-speed microelectronic devices. In recent years, with continuous breakthroughs in key technologies such as molecular beam epitaxy and surface passivation of antimonide superlattices, quantum wells, and HEMT materials, the performance of related optoelectronic devices has improved rapidly, presenting significant opportunities for translating experimental achievements into practical applications. Since 2005, our research group has been conducting systematic studies on the molecular beam epitaxial growth of low-dimensional structures—including antimonide superlattices, quantum wells, and modulation-doped heterojunctions—and has successively developed and demonstrated multi-band infrared detectors covering wavelengths from 2 to 20 μm. Specifically, 640×512 mid- and long-wave focal plane arrays operating in the 2–12 μm range have achieved imaging capability; mid-infrared detectors with high operating temperatures (with D* values approaching 4×10¹¹ under room-temperature background-noise limitations) have reached working temperatures close to 200 K, while their 320×256 focal plane arrays operate at temperatures as low as 150 K. The most recently developed conical-structure superlattice detector boasts an ultra-wide spectral response from 0.4 to 5 μm. On the laser front, we have reported FP-cavity-based 2-μm high-power lasers with continuous output power reaching 1.5 W at room temperature, as well as bar lasers delivering powers exceeding 8.5 W. Furthermore, our DFB narrow-linewidth lasers exhibit side-mode suppression ratios as high as 23 dB and achieve continuous output powers of 10 mW at room temperature. The InAs/AlSb modulation-doped HEMT material we have developed demonstrates electron mobilities of 27,000 cm²/V·s and hole mobilities of 1,000 cm²/V·s at room temperature—among the highest levels reported worldwide to date. These advances in antimonide epitaxial materials have strongly propelled the rapid development of domestically developed infrared optoelectronic technologies based on antimonide semiconductors. In particular, breakthroughs in single-crystal substrates and epitaxial growth materials have enabled us to overcome Western technological blockades, allowing detectors and lasers to transition seamlessly from laboratory settings to widespread commercial applications. As a result, a new class of antimonide optoelectronic materials is emerging, opening up exciting new avenues for high-performance infrared detectors and high-power infrared lasers!

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