Post-fabrication fine-tuning of photonic crystal quantum well infrared photodetectors

Photonic crystal (PC) devices require high fabrication accuracy for on demand positioning of resonances. We describe post-fabrication fine-tuning of a PC quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP) by sidewall-deposition of silicon nitride. The PC resonance was shifted over a bandwidth of 43 cm−1. From photoresponse measurements we calculated a tuning coefficient of ∂ν/∂dSiN=−0.06 cm−1/nm. The QWIP responsivity did not suffer from nitride absorption while the PC resonance increased by a factor of 1.6. This shows that post-fabrication tuning by dielectric deposition with, e.g., silicon nitride is a feasible method to achieve precise implementations of PC devices.