To reduce the difficulty of the epitaxy caused by multiple quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) with tunnel compensation structure, an improved structure is proposed. In the new structure, the superlattices are located between the tunnel junction and the barrier as the infrared absorption region, eliminating the effect of doping concentration on the well width in the original structure. Theoretical analysis and experimental verification of the new structure are carried out. The experimental sample is a two-cycle device, each cycle contains a tunnel junction, a superlattice infrared absorption region and a thick barrier. The photosurface of the detector is 200 × 200 μm² and the light is optically coupled by 45° oblique incidence. The results show that the optimal operating voltage of the sample is –1.1 V, the dark current is 2.99 × 10^–8 A, and the blackbody detectivity is 1.352 × 10⁸ cm·Hz^1/2·W^–1 at 77 K. Our experiments show that the new structure can work normally.

Optical coupling behavior and associated effects in two-dimensional implant-defined coherently coupled vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays are studied via both experiments and theoretical calculations. Experiments show that optical coupling between array elements can enhance the array’s output power. Additionally, optical coupling via leaky optical fields can provide extra optical gain for the array elements, which can then reduce the thresholds of these elements. Elements can even be pumped without current injection to emit light by receiving a strong leaky optical field from other array elements. Optical coupling can also cause unusual phenomena: the central elements in large-area coherently coupled VCSEL arrays that lase prior to the outer elements when the arrays are biased, or the average injection current required for each element to lase, which is much lower than the threshold for a single VCSEL. Theoretical calculations are performed to explain the experimental results.