Single-Photon Detection by a Simple Silicon-on-Insulator Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

Abstract

We demonstrate that a simple silicon-on-insulator (SOI) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) which can be found in ordinary integrated circuits could operate as a single-photon detector at room temperature. A potential well created by n þ p À n þ junctions is used to trap photo-generated holes, which is detected as increased electron current in the bottom channel with a single-hole sensitivity. Although peaks in histograms of drain current are overlapped due to relatively small sensitivity to the holes, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is large enough to determine the position and height of each peak corresponding to the discrete number of trapped holes. In addition to this single-photon detection capability, the simple MOSFET structure could also benefit from the potentially high quantum efficiency (QE) since it includes fewer absorbing electrodes to the incident light. #

Effects of substrate voltage on noise characteristics and hole lifetime in SOI metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor photon detector

“…Although the original SOI MOSFET photon detector [7] had a special double-gate structure with a short lower gate (LG) and a long upper gate (UG) covering the p − -doped offset area between LG and n + -doped source/drain, we select the ordinary n-channel fully-depleted (FD) SOI MOSFET without offset region [8] as shown in Fig. 1 considering its structural simplicity and versatility, and the device is fabricated in a 300-mm-wafer facility for Si integrated circuits to ensure the reproducibility.…”

“…A type of single-photon detector, which directly counts photo-generated and stored (or trapped) single charges by a sensitive electrometer, is drawing attention because of its potential as a photon-number-resolving detector [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Quantum dot field-effect transistor (QDFET) [2][3][4] utilizes the GaAs/AlGaAs two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) channel as an electrometer to detect the photo-generated and trapped holes in the InAs self-organized QDs.…”

“…Single-electron photodetector (photo-SET) [5,6] with nanocrystal silicon (nc-Si) dots formed by the deposition and annealing of Si-rich oxide utilizes single-electron transistor (SET) as an electrometer to detect photo-generated single charges trapped in the dot or Si/oxide interface. We have also studied the scaled-down silicon-on-insulator (SOI) metaloxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) [7,8], in which photo-generated holes are stored below the negatively biased gate, and are detected as changes in the bottomchannel electron current. This SOI MOSFET is practically very attractive in that it can be manufactured by the standard Si integrated circuit technology and features small dark counts of ~10 −2 s −1 at room temperature, but issues remain such as low quantum efficiency (QE) and the slow operation speed [7], and this report intends to address the latter.…”

High Sensitive Active MOS Photo Detector on the Local 3D SOI-Structure

“…Sensitivity of image sensors based on CCD and CMOS transistors are limited by quantity of charge that can be converted into potential and therefore detected by circuits. Recently, a highsensitive detector capable of registering single photons has been designed based on MOS transistor [1,2,3]. Such photon detector uses the n + pn + doping structure to create the potential well, which captures the photo-generated holes, Fig.…”

“…Without photo-generation, the photon detector generates a small electron current of 1 nA at V D =0.05, V LG =-1, V SUB =1 V, respectively [3]. When the photon intensity is about 3.6 × 10 -5 W/cm 2 , then the maximum of pulses amplitude of electron current increases by 2-3 times, allowing these current pulses to be registered.…”