High-Operating-Temperature HgCdTe Avalanche Photodiodes

Abstract

In this communication we report the first results of electro-optical characterization of planar heterostructure HgCdTe avalanche photodiodes (APDs), which enables the operation of APDs at high gain, at low bias, and with low dark current and/or at high operating temperature (HOT). The APD is based on a heterostructure in which the photons are detected in a wide-band-gap layer, and the photoelectrons are amplified in a vertical junction in a confined narrow-gap layer. The dark diffusion current and thermal background sensitivity of the device are limited by using a thin narrow-band-gap amplification layer. In addition, the defect-limited dark current is also expected to be reduced due to the reduced volume of the narrow-band-gap depletion layer. The electro-optical performance was characterized at T = 80 K and T = 200 K for two devices with a nominal thickness of the amplification layer of w = 100 nm and 500 nm, realized in x _Cd = 0.3 Hg-vacancy-doped layers grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE). The measurements show an average gain of 〈M〈 = 10 at a reverse bias of 5 V, which is slightly reduced compared with a conventional APD with x _Cd = 0.3. The thermal diffusion current measured at low reverse bias, V _b = 0.1 V, and at T = 200 K is about 0.1 mA/cm² to 0.3 mA/cm², which is a factor of 50 lower than standard x _Cd = 0.3 n-on-p APDs. The quantum efficiency due to absorption in the gain layer is high (QE_peak > 30%), although no antireflecting coating was used, indicating that the device can also be used for high-operating-temperature thermal detection.