High sensitivity Ge-on-Si single-photon avalanche diode detectors
Lourdes Ferre Llin, Jarosław Kirdoda, Fiona Thorburn, Laura L. Huddleston, Zoë M. Greener, Kateryna Kuzmenko, Peter Vines, Derek C. S. Dumas, Ross W. Millar, Gerald S. Buller, Douglas J. Paul
Abstract
The performance of planar geometry Ge-on-Si single-photon avalanche diode detectors of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mn>26</mml:mn> <mml:mspace width="thinmathspace"/> <mml:mspace width="thinmathspace"/> <mml:mtext>µ</mml:mtext> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> diameter is presented. Record low dark count rates are observed, remaining less than 100 K counts per second at 6.6% excess bias and 125 K. Single-photon detection efficiencies are found to be up to 29.4%, and are shown to be temperature insensitive. These performance characteristics lead to a significantly reduced noise equivalent power (NEP) of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mn>7.7</mml:mn> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>17</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> <mml:mspace width="thickmathspace"/> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">W</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">H</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">z</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mfrac> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mfrac> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> compared to prior planar devices, and represent a two orders of magnitude reduction in NEP compared to previous Ge-on-Si mesa devices of a comparable diameter. Low jitter values of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mn>134</mml:mn> <mml:mo>±</mml:mo> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mspace width="thickmathspace"/> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">p</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">s</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> are demonstrated.