Thermal conductivity tensors of the cladding and active layers of antimonide infrared lasers and detectors

The in-plane and cross-plane thermal conductivities of the cladding layers and active quantum wells of interband cascade lasers and type-II superlattice infrared detector are measured by the 2-wire 3ω method. The layers investigated include InAs/AlSb superlattice cladding layers, InAs/GaInSb/InAs/AlSb W-active quantum wells, an InAs/GaSb superlattice absorber, an InAs/GaSb/AlSb M-structure, and an AlAsSb digital alloy. The in-plane thermal conductivity of the InAs/AlSb superlattice is 4–5 times higher than the cross-plane value. The isotropic thermal conductivity of the AlAsSb digital alloy matches a theoretical expectation, but it is one order of magnitude lower than the only previously-reported experimental value.