Single Photon Counting UV Solar-Blind Detectors Using Silicon and III-Nitride Materials

Shouleh Nikzad; Michael Hoenk; April D Jewell; John J Hennessy; Alexander G Carver; Todd J Jones; Timothy M Goodsall; Erika T Hamden; Puneet Suvarna; J Bulmer; F Shahedipour-Sandvik; Edoardo Charbon; Preethi Padmanabhan; Bruce Hancock; L Douglas Bell

doi:10.3390/s16060927

Single Photon Counting UV Solar-Blind Detectors Using Silicon and III-Nitride Materials

Sensors (Basel). 2016 Jun 21;16(6):927. doi: 10.3390/s16060927.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. shouleh.nikzad@jpl.nasa.gov.
² Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. michael.hoenk@jpl.nasa.gov.
³ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. April.D.Jewell@jpl.nasa.gov.
⁴ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. John.J.Hennessy@jpl.nasa.gov.
⁵ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. Alexander.G.Carver@jpl.nasa.gov.
⁶ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. todd.jones@jpl.nasa.gov.
⁷ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. timothy.goodsall@jpl.nasa.gov.
⁸ Department of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. hamden@caltech.edu.
⁹ College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Albany, NY 12203, USA. psuvarna@albany.edu.
¹⁰ College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Albany, NY 12203, USA. jbulmer@albany.edu.
¹¹ College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Albany, NY 12203, USA. sshahedipour-sandvik@albany.edu.
¹² Department of Microelectronics, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. e.charbon@tudelft.nl.
¹³ Department of Microelectronics, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. PreethiPadmanabhan@student.tudelft.nl.
¹⁴ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. bruce.hancock@jpl.nasa.gov.
¹⁵ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA. lloyddoug.bell@jpl.nasa.gov.

Abstract

Ultraviolet (UV) studies in astronomy, cosmology, planetary studies, biological and medical applications often require precision detection of faint objects and in many cases require photon-counting detection. We present an overview of two approaches for achieving photon counting in the UV. The first approach involves UV enhancement of photon-counting silicon detectors, including electron multiplying charge-coupled devices and avalanche photodiodes. The approach used here employs molecular beam epitaxy for delta doping and superlattice doping for surface passivation and high UV quantum efficiency. Additional UV enhancements include antireflection (AR) and solar-blind UV bandpass coatings prepared by atomic layer deposition. Quantum efficiency (QE) measurements show QE > 50% in the 100-300 nm range for detectors with simple AR coatings, and QE ≅ 80% at ~206 nm has been shown when more complex AR coatings are used. The second approach is based on avalanche photodiodes in III-nitride materials with high QE and intrinsic solar blindness.

Keywords: ALD; APD; Avalanche; EMCCD; GaN; MBE; MOCVD; ROIC; quantum efficiency; ultraviolet; visible rejection.

Publication types

Review