Complementing InAsSb with gallium and bismuth to unlock a new infrared sensing alternative

What is it about?

This work shows how the use of alloying elemental bismuth with materials used in the telecom industry (GaInAsSb) can provide access to infrared sensing applications. This was a successful demonstration of the material’s infrared detection sensitivity, and its performance proximity to the current state-of-the-art provides a positive outlook in complementing the industry’s current portfolio for producing high performance infrared sensing systems.

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Why is it important?

There are many uses for infrared sensing, some of them include infrared astronomy, and hot object tracking. But access to this capability is limited to parties with large budget projects and applications requiring a small number of material throughput, such as the James Webb Space Telescope. In proliferated satellite systems where hundreds of satellites can be launched in a day, multiple detector options can provide the customer with functional lower cost designs that can satisfy the need for high performance infrared imaging.