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Analysis of Hot-Carrier Luminescence for Infrared Single-Photon Upconversion and Readout

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Analysis of Hot-Carrier Luminescence for Infrared Single-Photon Upconversion and Readout UC San Diego UC San Diego Previously Published Works Title Analysis of hot-carrier luminescence for infrared single-photon upconversion and readout Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0pw9x6vs Journal IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 13(4) Authors Finkelstein, Hod Gross, Matthias Lo, Yu-Hwa et al. Publication Date 2007-07-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 13, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2007 959 Analysis of Hot-Carrier Luminescence for Infrared Single-Photon Upconversion and Readout Hod Finkelstein, Student Member, IEEE, Matthias Gross, Yu-Hwa Lo, and Sadik Esener, Fellow, IEEE Abstract—We propose and analyze a new method for single- cannot generate an avalanche pulse in response to a photon. photon wavelength up-conversion using optical coupling between This time is called the device dead time and depends on the a primary infrared (IR) single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) recharge mechanism, on the overbias above breakdown, and and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) silicon SPAD, which are fused through a silicon dioxide passivation layer. most significantly, on the junction’s capacitance. A primary IR photon induces an avalanche in the IR SPAD. The Dark counts result from avalanches, which are not induced photons produced by hot-carrier recombination are subsequently by absorbed photons. They can originate from thermally gen- sensed by the silicon SPAD, thus, allowing for on-die data pro- erated carriers; from band-to-band tunneling; via trap-assisted cessing. Because the devices are fused through their passivation tunneling; and by afterpulsing—the release of carriers trapped layers, lattice mismatch issues between the semiconductor materi- als are avoided. We develop a model for calculating the conversion in prior avalanches. The latter mechanism is an important factor efficiency of the device, and use realistic device parameters to esti- in determining the device dead time. mate up to 97% upconversion efficiency and 33% system efficiency, The time-delay spread between the photon absorption event limited by the IR detector alone. The new scheme offers a low-cost and the clocking of the resulting electrical signal depends on means to manufacture dense IR-SPAD arrays, while significantly the diameter of the SPAD as well as on the timing circuitry. It reducing their afterpulsing. We show that this high-speed compact method for upconverting IR photons is feasible and efficient. determines the timing resolution of the single-photon detector. Other factors such as active area, pixel pitch, and manufac- Index Terms—Avalanche photodiodes, single photon detectors, turing cost are also important in the evaluation of single-photon wavelength upconversion. detectors. I. INTRODUCTION Visible-wavelength single-photon detection has been exten- sively investigated. Silicon SPADs have recently been demon- INGLE-PHOTON detection at infrared wavelengths has strated on commercial deep submicron technologies, allowing S gained relevance in recent years due to its central role in for compact pixels with 25% fill factor, with less than 5 ns of quantum communications [1], eye-safe laser detection and rang- dead time and with digital outputs [5]. Such devices can be inte- ing (LIDAR) [2], optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) grated into arrays with the quenching, recharge, and processing [3], and in semiconductor failure analysis [4]. IR single-photon circuitry on the same die. detectors should ideally operate at high frequencies (tens to Various techniques have been employed for single-photon hundreds of megahertz), consume minimal power (<1 nW/bit), detection in the IR. Superconducting transition-edge sensors operate reliably at noncryogenic temperatures over many cy- detect the subtle temperature change in small-volume tungsten cles, and be manufacturable at a low cost. When operated in microcalorimeters in response to the absorption of a photon [6]. arrays, such devices should also have a small pitch and low These devices offer excellent timing accuracy, a very low dark pixel-to-pixel crosstalk. current, and no afterpulsing. However, they are limited by their Several figures of merit are used to evaluate single-photon de- microsecond recovery time, their dark count rate is excessive, tectors. The single-photon detection probability η is the product and they require cooling to 4.2 K. In addition, they also re- of the probabilities of a photon being absorbed in the material quire very-low-noise amplifiers, which must also be cooled. Su- and of it initiating a detectable avalanche. The device’s spectral perconducting niobium [7] and niobium-nitride [8] nanowires response describes the wavelength dependence of this detec- have also been used for single-photon detection, achieving gi- tion probability. These metrics depend on the percentage of gahertz operation, but still requiring cryogenic cooling. Further- pixel area, which collect photons (fill ratio); on the absorbing more, production of such devices is expensive, and has not been layer’s composition, depth and thickness; and on the electric demonstrated in large arrays or in mass scale. field distribution in the multiplication region, as will be detailed Solid-state IR SPADs have been demonstrated using a planar in Section III. geometry and a standard semiconductor processing flow [9]. During the recharge process following an avalanche, the These detectors traditionally have separate absorption and mul- SPAD is temporarily biased below the breakdown voltage, and tiplication regions, whereby, for example, photons are absorbed in a thick (several microns) lightly doped InGaAs layer. The Manuscript received January 1, 2007; revised May 29, 2007. This work was photo-generated carriers are swept towards an InP high-field supported in part by the U.S. Army Research Office under Grant W911NF-05- 1-0243. multiplication region where impact ionizations provide gain. The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer En- When the extraction rate of carriers from this multiplication gineering, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA 92093 region falls below the creation rate, an avalanche breakdown USA (e-mail: hfi[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]). is said to occur and the gain becomes “infinite.” In this mode, Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSTQE.2007.901884 known as Geiger mode (GM), single-photon detection becomes 1077-260X/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE 960 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 13, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2007 possible. The avalanche must be quenched to avoid damage to device bandwidth [9]–[17]. Time gating can reduce the effect the junction. of afterpulsing [11]–[18], but due to its exponential time dis- Quenching can be achieved either passively by using a tribution, the separation between gates (device dead time) must voltage-limiting resistor in series with the device, or actively by be made long enough compared with the afterpulse lifetime, using a circuit that senses the onset of the avalanche, and subse- in order to sufficiently reduce the probability of experiencing quently quenches it. Once the avalanche has been quenched, the an afterpulse during an exposure time gate. Furthermore, time diode capacitance must be recharged—either passively, through gating is only possible when the arrival time of the photon is the quenching resistor; or actively, using a recharging circuit. known to be within the duration of the gate. At low temperatures, A new type of quenching mechanism has been demonstrated SPADs can still be operated in free-running mode with minimal by Golovin et al. [10], whereby, a resistive layer is deposited afterpulsing effects, but only if a sufficiently long hold-off time on top of the p-n junction. When an avalanche occurs, charges is ensured following an avalanche, thereby, severely limiting the accumulate on the interface between this resistive layer and the detection rate [19]. silicon, thereby, creating a negative feedback loop that quickly For a given technology, afterpulsing can be reduced by limit- quenches the avalanche. One of the main benefits of this scheme ing the charge flowing during an avalanche. This may be done is that it integrates the quenching function into the device. This by active quenching but is achieved more efficiently by reduc- can have important benefits to devices manufactured in non- ing the junction capacitance. The capacitance in IR SPADs is commercial or nonsilicon processes, where resistors are not dominated by the capacitances of the readout, recharge, and available. quenching circuitry, because these operations are implemented IR Geiger-mode single-photon avalanche diodes (GM- off-chip, either on a board or on a silicon die. Connections are SPADs) have been shown to have detection probabilities of the made either by wire bonding [9] or by using indium bumps [20]. order of 33% when operated 5% above their breakdown volt- This limits the pixel pitch, and may result in capacitances of the age [11]. They are amenable to integration in large arrays and to order of picofarads, thus, deteriorating the noise performance of mass production because they can be manufactured using stan- the device due to afterpulsing. dard lithographically defined processing techniques. However, Recently, a scheme was described for integrating the vari- the support circuitry, including the quenching, recharging, and ous SPAD components
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