In As photodiode for low temperature sensing

We report on the evaluation of InAs photodiodes and their potential for low temperature sensing. InAs n-i-p photodiodes were grown and analyzed in this work. Radiation thermometry measurements were performed at reference blackbody temperatures of 37 to 80°C to determine photocurrent and temperature error. The uncooled InAs photodiodes, with a cutoff wavelength of 3.55 μm, detect a target temperature above 37°C with a temperature error of less than 0.46°C. When the photodiode was cooled to 200 K, the temperature error at 37°C improves by 10 times from 0.46 to 0.048°C, suggesting the potential of using InAs for human temperature sensing. © (2015) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.