Reininger P, Schwarz B, Gansch R, Detz H, MacFarland D, Zederbauer T, Andrews A M, Schrenk W, Strasser G
Opt Express. 2015 Mar 9;23(5):6283-91. doi: 10.1364/OE.23.006283.
A diagonal optically active transition in a quantum cascade detector is introduced as optimization parameter to obtain quality factor matching between a photodetector and a cavity. A more diagonal transition yields both higher extraction efficiency and lower noise, while the reduction of the absorption strength is compensated by the resonant cavity. The theoretical limits of such a scheme are obtained, and the impact of losses and cavity processing variations are evaluated. By optimizing the quantum design for a high quality cavity, a specific detectivity of 10(9) Jones can be calculated for λ = 8μm and T = 300K.
