Effect of the bonding layer and multigrading layers on the performance of a wafer-bonded InGaAs/Si single-photon detector

Abstract

A wafer-bonded InGaAs/Si avalanche photodiode (APD) at a wavelength of 1550 nm was theoretically simulated. We focused on the effect of the In1−xGa x As multigrading layers and bonding layers on the electric fields, electron and hole concentrations, recombination rates, and energy bands. In this work, In1−xGa x As multigrading layers inserted between Si and InGaAs were adopted to reduce the discontinuity of the conduction band between Si and InGaAs. A bonding layer was introduced at the InGaAs/Si interface to isolate the mismatched lattices to achieve a high-quality InGaAs film. In addition, the bonding layer can further regulate the electric field distribution in the absorption and multiplication layers. The wafer-bonded InGaAs/Si APD, structured by a polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) bonding layer and In1−xGa x As multigrading layers (x changes from 0.5 to 0.85), displayed the highest gain-bandwidth product (GBP). When the APD operates in Geiger mode, the single-photon detection efficiency (SPDE) of the photodiode is 20%, and the dark count rate (DCR) is 1 MHz at 300 K. Moreover, one finds that the DCR is lower than 1 kHz at 200 K. These results indicate that high-performance InGaAs/Si SPAD can be achieved through a wafer-bonded platform.