High Photoexcited Carrier Multiplication By Charged Inas Dots In Alas/Gaas/Alas Resonant Tunneling Diode

We present an approach for the highly sensitive photon detection based on the quantum dots (QDs) operating at temperature of 77 K. The detection structure is based on an AlAs/GaAs/AlAs double barrier resonant tunneling diode combined with a layer of self-assembled InAs QDs (QD-RTD). A photon rate of 115 photons per second had induced 10 nA photocurrent in this structure, corresponding to the photoexcited carrier multiplication factor of 10(7). This high multiplication factor is achieved by the quantum dot induced memory effect and the resonant tunneling tuning effect of QD-RTD structure. (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics.