Tailoring Optical Transitions with GaAs/AlGaAs Quantum Bragg Mirror Detectors (QBMDs)

The quantum Bragg mirror detector (QBMD) is an innovative class of photodetectors designed to explore optical transitions from the ground state to bound states or to leaky electronic states in the continuum. In this study, we explore an asymmetric QBMD based on GaAs/AlGaAs with a leaky electronic state in the continuum. The use of GaAs/AlGaAs provides unique flexibility in potential barrier manipulation, which is unattainable in InGaAs/InAlAs heterostructures lattice matched to InP. By tailoring the layers compositions and thicknesses, the heterostructure has been engineered to explore a transition at 111 meV (l = 11.2 µm) from the ground state to a leaky electronic state in the continuum. A judicious choice of the GaAs/AlGaAs physical parameters was carried out and the calculated photovoltaic photocurrent and absorption exhibit a strong correspondence.