Low-Temperature Geiger-Mode Characterization of a Gallium Nitride p-i-n Avalanche Photodiode

• Published in: IEEE journal of quantum electronics Vol. 59; no. 3; p. 1
• Main Authors: Jeong, H., Gazda, E. A., Ji, M.-H., Cho, M., Detchprohm, T., Shen, S.-C., Otte, A. N., Dupuis, R. D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-06-2023; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Avalanche diodes; Avalanche photodiode; Avalanche photodiodes; Breakdown; Circuits; Electric breakdown; Engineering; Gallium nitrides; Histograms; III-Nitride; Light sources; Low temperature; Optics; Overvoltage; Photodiodes; Photonics; Physics; PIN photodiodes; Poisson distribution; Room temperature; Semiconductor device measurement; Silicon; Single photon detection; Statistical analysis; Temperature dependence
• ISSN: 0018-9197; 1558-1713
• DOI: 10.1109/JQE.2023.3266759

We present the low-temperature Geiger-mode characteristics of GaN (gallium nitride) p-i-n avalanche photodiodes (APDs). The devices have a breakdown voltage of -95V and a temperature dependence of ~0.0159 ± 0.0034 V/K near 300K. The room-temperature (300 K) dark-count rate (DCR) is 23.8 MHz for a 75 × 75 μm 2 device biased at 1 % overvoltage. The DCR halves when lowering the temperature by 50°C. Based on the temperature-dependent characteristics of the DCR, we identify band-to-band tunneling as the dominant DCR generation mechanism. At 4.65 % overvoltage and 375 nm, the photon detection efficiency (PDE) is 0.82 %- limited by a low breakdown probability of 1.7 %. We discuss the measurement setup and the method to extract count rates, which is based on the Poisson distribution of the time intervals between Geiger-mode breakdowns of the APD. The setup includes a custom circuit to bias the diode and amplify its signals, a steady ultraviolet (UV) light source, and a system to control the temperature of the APD with a thermoelectric element in the range from -40 to 20°C.