High-Performance InGaAs/InP Single-Photon Avalanche Photodiode

Liu, Mingguo; Hu, Chong; Bai, Xiaogang; Guo, Xinjian; Campbell, Joe C.; Zeng, Pan; Tashima, M. M.

doi:10.1109/jstqe.2007.903855

Cited by 66 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…At 210K the NEP in free-running mode is close to that quoted for an InGaAs/InP SPAD operated in gated mode (4.5 Â 10 217 WHz 21/2 using a 4 ns gate at 10 kHz) at 200K [8]. At a given temperature, the maximum operating voltage used for characterisation depended mainly on the DCR for both devices.…”

supporting

confidence: 77%

Improved free-running InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diode detectors operating at room temperature

2009

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Room-temperature operation of InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diode detectors operating in free-running mode, with no electrical gating, is demonstrated. An improved design of device structure permitted significantly lower dark count rates than previously reported. Free-running operation at room temperature using an incident wavelength of 1550 nm gave a noise equivalent power of 1.5 Â 10 215 WHz 21/2 with improved photon timing jitter.InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diode detectors (SPADs) are favoured in a number of applications for single-photon detection at wavelengths around 1550 nm, e.g. quantum key distribution (QKD) [1]. Gated quenching, in various guises, including the use of active quenching circuits [2], has been implemented in many of these applications to limit the charge flow per event to reduce the detrimental effects of the afterpulsing phenomenon. This has permitted gating frequencies greater than 1 GHz and high count-rates at the expense of gate 'on' times. For applications such as time-resolved photoluminescence and time-of-flight laser ranging [3] long 'on' periods are required to most efficiently extract the information about the sample, or target, respectively. Ideally, a free-running detector [4] would be preferred for such applications. Recently, we reported the use of a Princeton Lightwave Inc. (PLI) InGaAs/InP SPAD employing passive quenching at low excess biases [5] which illustrated the first report of an InGaAs/ InP SPAD operating free-running at room temperature. In this work, different characteristics of device performance can be exploited depending on the choice of quenching resistor; the lower Rs the faster the recharging of the diode after an avalanche event, however with a greater Rs a higher bias could be applied resulting in higher singlephoton detection efficiency (SPDE) and lower photon-timing jitter. With the first generation of PLI InGaAs/InP SPADs we were able to achieve 3% SPDE at most temperatures and a maximum count-rate of 4 Mc/s [5]. Significantly, the low dark count rates (DCR) found in these experiments meant room-temperature operation could be achieved in free-running mode with negligible effects of afterpulsing evident. 220 240 260 temperature, K n e w g e n e ra ti o n S P A D fi rs t g e n e ra ti o n S P A D 280 300 NEP, WHz -12 Fig. 1 Minimum NEP at l ¼ 1550 nm against temperature for first and new generation InGaAs/InP SPADs operated in low excess bias passive quenching mode using 100 kV quenching resistorRecently, a new generation of 1550 nm wavelength SPAD designs was developed by PLI including negative feedback provided by the monolithic integration of a thin film resistor [6]. In the work reported in this Letter, reference samples from the same generation of devices described in [6] were used in conjunction with an external resistor to provide quenching. The SPAD design differs from that reported previously [5] in that the electric field within the InP multiplication region is designed to be significantly lower in Geiger-mode in order to suppress da...

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confidence: 77%

Improved free-running InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diode detectors operating at room temperature

2009

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“…In [20], such a procedure was used to fit afterpulsing data with hold-off times ranging from 1.25 to 100 ms by using three time constants ( 1 $ 0.5 ms, 2 $ 6.1 ms, and 3 $ 99 ms). Similarly, in [21], hold-off times ranging from 0.02 to 50 ms were used, and fitting of the resulting afterpulsing data required four detrapping time constants ( 1 $ 0.07 ms, 2 $ 0.9 ms, 3 $ 4.2 ms, and 4 $ 33 ms). For the measured P ap (T ho ) data in Figure 3 spanning hold-off times ranges from 20 ns to 1.5 ms, we can follow a similar procedure to obtain the fit shown by the heavy dashed line.…”

Section: Multiple-gate Sequencing As Extension Of Time-correlated Carmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power law temporal dependence of InGaAs/InP SPAD afterpulsing

Itzler

Jiang

Entwistle

2012

Journal of Modern Optics

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The characterization and analysis of afterpulsing behavior in InGaAs/InP single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) is reported for gating frequencies between 10 and 50 MHz. Gating in this frequency range was accomplished using a matched delay line technique to achieve parasitic transient cancellation, and FPGA-based data acquisition firmware was implemented to provide an efficient, flexible multiple-gate sequencing methodology for obtaining the dependence of afterpulse probability P ap on hold-off time T ho . We show that the detrapping times extracted from the canonical exponential fitting of P ap (T ho ) have no physical significance, and we propose an alternative description of the measured data, which is accurately fit with the simple power law behavior P ap / T À ho with $ 1.2 AE 0.2. We discuss the physical implications of this functional form, including what it may indicate about trap defect distributions and other possible origins of this power law behavior.

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“…On the other hand, if the punch-through voltage is too small with respect to the breakdown voltage, a high electric field can build up in the absorption region, which can lead to band-to-band tunnelling [55]. This tunnelling current can initiate impact ionisation in the absence of photons and cause dark counts in the same vein as carrier escape from trap states or thermally generated carriers.…”

Section: Design Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Single photon avalanche detectors: prospects of new quenching and gain mechanisms

Hall

Liu

2015

Nanophotonics

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While silicon single-photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) have reached very high detection efficiency and timing resolution, their use in fibre-optic communications, optical free space communications, and infrared sensing and imaging remains limited. III-V compounds including InGaAs and InP are the prevalent materials for 1550 nm light detection. However, even the most sensitive 1550 nm photoreceivers in optical communication have a sensitivity limit of a few hundred photons. Today, the only viable approach to achieve single-photon sensitivity at 1550 nm wavelength from semiconductor devices is to operate the avalanche detectors in Geiger mode, essentially trading dynamic range and speed for sensitivity. As material properties limit the performance of Ge and III-V detectors, new conceptual insight with regard to novel quenching and gain mechanisms could potentially address the performance limitations of III-V SPADs. Novel designs that utilise internal self-quenching and negative feedback can be used to harness the sensitivity of single-photon detectors, while drastically reducing the device complexity and increasing the level of integration. Incorporation of multiple gain mechanisms, together with self-quenching and built-in negative feedback, into a single device also hold promise for a new type of detector with single-photon sensitivity and large dynamic range.

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High-Performance InGaAs/InP Single-Photon Avalanche Photodiode

Cited by 66 publications

References 17 publications

Improved free-running InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diode detectors operating at room temperature

Improved free-running InGaAs/InP single-photon avalanche diode detectors operating at room temperature

Power law temporal dependence of InGaAs/InP SPAD afterpulsing

Single photon avalanche detectors: prospects of new quenching and gain mechanisms

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