Open AccessSingle photon detector with a mesoscopic cycling excitation design of dual gain sections and a transport barrier
Author(s) -
Lujiang Yan,
Mohammad Abu Raihan Miah,
Yu-Hsin Liu
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
optics letters/optics index
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.524
H-Index - 272
eISSN - 1071-2763
pISSN - 0146-9592
DOI - 10.1364/ol.44.001746
Subject(s) - mesoscopic physics , materials science , optoelectronics , optics , amorphous silicon , semiconductor , avalanche photodiode , silicon , detector , photodetector , crystalline silicon , physics , condensed matter physics
Conventional semiconductor single photon detectors (SPDs) are Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes made of high-quality crystalline semiconductors and require external quenching circuits. Here we report a design of an SPD having dual gain sections to obtain mesoscopic cycling excitation and an amorphous/crystalline heterointerface to form an electron transport barrier that suppresses gain fluctuations. The dual gain sections comprise a crystalline silicon n/p junction and a thin layer of amorphous silicon. At 100 MHz, the device shows single photon detection efficiency greater than 11%, self-recovery time of less than 1 ns, and an excess noise factor of 1.22 at an average gain around 75,000 under 8.5 V bias.