HgCdTe Electron Avalanche Photodiodes (EAPDs)

Baker, Ian; Kinch, M. A.

doi:10.1002/9780470669464.ch21

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…HgCdTe is unique amongst avalanche semiconductors for three reasons. 12,13 First, only electrons participate in the avalanche process, because the holes have low mobility due to their high effective mass and low ionization efficiency. Second, the multiplication process is ballistic because the electrons do not experience phonon interactions or scattering, resulting in nearly noiseless amplification and deterministic APD gain as a function of bias voltage.…”

Section: Detector Design 21 Hgcdte Materials and Avalanche Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

First tests of a 1 megapixel near-infrared avalanche photodiode array for ultra-low background space astronomy

Claveau

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Jacobson

et al. 2022

X-Ray, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy X

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Spectroscopy of Earth-like exoplanets and ultra-faint galaxies are priority science cases for the coming decades. Here, broadband source flux rates are measured in photons per square meter per hour, imposing extreme demands on detector performance, including dark currents lower than 1 e-/pixel/kilosecond, read noise less than 1 e-/pixel/frame, and large formats. There are currently no infrared detectors that meet these requirements. The University of Hawai'i and industrial partners are developing one promising technology, linear mode avalanche photodiodes (LmAPDs), using fine control over the HgCdTe bandgap structure to enable noise-free charge amplification and minimal glow.Here we report first results of a prototype megapixel format LmAPD operated in our cryogenic testbed. At 50 Kelvin, we measure a dark current of about 3 e-/pixel/kilosecond, which is due to an intrinsic dark current consistent with zero (best estimate of 0.1 e-/pixel/kilosecond) and a ROIC glow of 0.08 e-/pixel/frame. The read noise of these devices is about 10 e-/pixel/frame at 3 volts, and decreases by 30% with each additional volt of bias, reaching 2 e-at 8 volts. Upcoming science-grade devices are expected to substantially improve upon these figures, and address other issues uncovered during testing.

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Section: Detector Design 21 Hgcdte Materials and Avalanche Processmentioning

confidence: 99%