Photovoltaic operation up to 270 K of a strain-compensated $AlAs∕In0.84Ga0.16As∕AlAs∕InAlAs$ quantum well infrared photodetector

We report operation up to 270 K of a strain-compensated $AlAs∕In0.84Ga0.16As∕AlAs∕In0.52Al0.48As$ double barrier quantum well infrared photodetector, grown on an InP substrate. The $n=1$ to $n=2$ intersubband transition gives a peak detection wavelength of $2.09μm$ at 77 K which is in good agreement with the calculated value for a 3 nm quantum well. The conduction band discontinuity between $In0.52Al0.48As$ and $In0.84Ga0.16As$ is calculated to be 0.675 eV, which offers the possibility of room temperature operation for optimized detectors.