Single Photon Counting UV Solar-Blind Detectors Using Silicon and III-Nitride Materials
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.
Additional Information
© 2016 MDPI AG. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Received: 31 March 2016; Revised: 5 June 2016; Accepted: 7 June 2016; Published: 21 June 2016. We gratefully acknowledge the collaborative effort with e2v, Inc. (Chelmsford, UK) and helpful discussions with P. Pool, P. Fochi, A. Reinheimer, P. Jorden, and P. Jerram of e2v. We acknowledge excellent collaborative effort and support from M. McClish at Radiation Monitoring Devices (RMD, Watertown, MA, USA) and D. Hitlin of Caltech. The authors thank S. Riccardi and R. Myers of RMD for QE measurements on superlattice-doped avalanche photodiodes. This work was carried out at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. We also acknowledge the support of W.M. Keck Institute (Pasadena, CA, USA) for Space Studies for partial support of this work. One of us, E.T.H acknowledges the support of NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, NSF Fellowship, and R.M & G.B. Millikan Prize Fellowship at different stages of this project. P. P. was supported by an internship supported through JPL Visiting Research Student Program (JVRSP) and TU Delft Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.Attached Files
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC4934352
- Eprint ID
- 68697
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160627-161156311
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- W. M. Keck Institute for Space Studies
- NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship
- NSF
- R.M & G.B. Millikan Prize Fellowship
- JPL Visiting Research Student Program (JVRSP)
- TU Delft Faculty of Electrical Engineering
- Created
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2016-06-29Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2022-04-26Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Keck Institute for Space Studies