A High Sensitivity Detector For Underwater Communication Systems

We demonstrate an AlInP detector grown on lattice-matched GaAs substrate for underwater communication applications. This detector has a narrow inherent spectral response of 22 nm with central wavelength at similar to 480 nm and is capable of having avalanche gain of similar to 20 which gives peak responsivity of similar to 2 A/W. A much higher multiplication of similar to 167 was shown in the previous work. The full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) and responsivity of this detector is fairly insensitive to the angle of the incident light. These properties enable it to detect an optical signal at 480 nm even in the presence of high background illumination.