LAUSR

Temperature-dependent spectral response mechanism in GaAs-based blocked-impurity-band (BIB) far-infrared detectors has been investigated. Device structure, processing steps and physical models are described in detail. In this work, our discussion is mainly focused on the operation temperature (Tope) of BIB detector. It is demonstrated that the critical Tope and the optimal Tope both exist for GaAs-based BIB detector. It is only when the temperature-assisted photo electron excitation process is fundamentally equivalent to the temperature-assisted photo electron recombination process that the optimal Tope occurs, and it is only when the temperature-assisted photo electron excitation process is dominated by the temperature-assisted photo electron recombination process that the critical Tope occurs.