Short-Wave Infrared HgCdTe Avalanche Photodiodes

Abstract

Short-wave infrared (SWIR) HgCdTe avalanche photodiodes (APDs) have been developed to address low-flux applications at low operating temperature and for laser detection at higher temperatures. Stable multiplication gains in excess of 200 have been observed in homojunction APDs with cutoff wavelengths down to 2.8 μm and operating temperatures up to 300 K, associated with low excess noise F < 1.3 and low 1/f noise. The measured dark current density at 200 K of 6.2 μA/cm² is low enough to enable high-sensitivity single-element light detection and ranging (lidar) applications and time-of-flight imaging. Corresponding APD arrays have been hybridized on a readout integrated circuit (ROIC) designed for low-flux low-SNR imaging with low noise and frame rates higher than 1500 frames/s. Preliminary focal-plane array characterization has confirmed the nominal ROIC performance and showed pixel operability above 99.5% (pixels within ±50% of average gain). The bias dependence of the multiplication gain has been characterized as a function of temperature, cadmium composition, and junction geometry. A qualitative change in the bias dependence of the gain compared with mid-wave infrared (MWIR) HgCdTe has motivated the development of a modified local electric field model for the electron impaction ionization coefficient and multiplication gain. This model gives a close fit to the gain curves in both SWIR and MWIR APDs at temperatures between 80 K and 300 K, using two parameters that scale as a function of the energy gap and temperature. This property opens the path to quantitative predictive device simulations and to estimations of the junction geometry of APDs from the bias dependence of the gain.