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Ingaas/Inalas Single Photon Avalanche Diodes at 1550 Nm and X-Ray Detectors Using InGaAs/InAlAs single photon avalanche diodes at 1550 nm and X-ray detectors using III-V semiconductor materials Xiao Meng A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering The University of Sheffield August 2015 Acknowledgement Firstly, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisors, Dr. Jo Shien Ng and Prof. Chee Hing Tan, for giving me an opportunity to pursue a PhD degree and their invaluable guidance on this work. I really appreciate for their constant support and encouragement, particularly during difficult times of my research. I also would like to thank Prof. John David for his expert comments and suggestions on my work. My gratitude also extended to Dr. Shiyong Zhang for growing high quality wafers. I am grateful to Dr. John Lees from University of Leicester and Dr. Anna Barnett from University of Sussex for providing useful experimental data and giving critical comments on my publications from this work. I would like to acknowledge Prof. Alberto Tosi and his group members for the cross-measurement results on parts of my work. I sincerely thank Simon Dimler and Dr. Rajiv Gomes who shared their insights on single photon avalanche diodes and semiconductor X-ray detectors, respectively, during the first year of my PhD. Thanks also go to other impact ionisation group members, past and present, Dr. Ian Sandall, Dr. Shiyu Xie, Dr. Perter Vines, Dr. Pin Jern Ker, Dr. Jingjing Xie, Dr. Rajiv Gomes, Dr. James Green, Dr. Jennifer Ong, Dr. Siewli Tan, Dr. Rahman Mohmad, Dr. Matthew Hobbs, Dr. Xinxin Zhou, Akeel Auckloo, Jeng Shiuh Cheong, Benjamin White, Zhize Zhou, Liang Qiao. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and girlfriend for their endless love and support. i Abstract This thesis describes the experimental research carried out on avalanche photodiodes (APDs) for single photon detection. The work covered (i) 1550 nm wavelength single photon detection using InGaAs/InAlAs single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs), and (ii) soft X-ray detection using III-V semiconductor photodiodes or APDs. SPADs for 1550 nm single photons detection have numerous applications in scenarios where 1550 nm wavelength light detection at very low intensity is essential. InGaAs/InAlAs SPADs with mesa structure are designed and fabricated. The first batch of SPADs showed a temperature coefficient of breakdown voltage ≤ 7 mV/K, for the temperature range of 260 to 290 K. When operated in gated mode, the SPADs exhibited SPDE of 10 and 21 % at room temperature and 260 K, respectively. However, the dark count rates are high, possibly due to BTB tunnelling current in the avalanche layer. Efforts were then made to design and fabricate SPADs with thicker avalanche and absorption layer, resulting in the second batch of SPADs. At 210 K, the highest SPDE of 36 % are achieved. Observing activation energy values deduced from the dark count rates, it is likely that tunnelling current persists at the high overbias voltage (required to reach the highest SPDE), which could be reduced by increasing avalanche layer thickness. Hence, the data from the two batches of InGaAs/InAlAs SPADs show that they can be practical alternative to InGaAs/InP SPADs, but with the proven advantage of better temperature stability and the promise of greater SPDE potential from impact ionisation properties in InAlAs. The second part of the thesis describes the investigations of InAs avalanche photodiodes (APDs) as X-ray detectors. Combining narrow band gap semiconductor materials (lower Fano-limited energy resolution) and avalanche gain (to reduce the undesirable effect of pre-amplifier’s noise in energy resolution), the work focused on InAs APDs for X-rays detection. The liquid nitrogen-cooled InAs APD achieved its best Full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 401eV at 5.9 keV. The optimum operation voltage was 10 V, which gave an avalanche gain of 11. The minimum FWHM achieved is largely dominated by the measurement system noise and APD leakage current. The influence of the APD structure (p-i-n versus n-i-p) on minimum FWHM values was also ii studied in detail to experimentally prove that InAs APD with p-i-n structure is more advantageous for small FWHM. The X-ray detector work extended to a study of leakage currents using GaAs mesa p- i-n diodes for X-ray photon counting. Different wet chemical etching solution and etch depth are used in the fabrication of these mesa diodes. Low and uniform leakage currents are achieved when the diode fabrication used (i) a combination of main etching solution and finishing etching solution for the etching, and (ii) partially etched mesas. The diodes fabricated using these methods show well-defined X-ray peaks when illuminated with a 55Fe radioisotope source. iii List of publications Journal publications: 1. X. Meng, X. Zhou, S. Zhang, J. Lees, C. H. Tan and J. S. Ng, "InAs X-ray avalanche photodiodes," submitted to Journal of Instrumentation. 2. X. Zhou, X. Meng, A. B. Krysa, J. R. Willmott, J. S. Ng, and C. H. Tan, "InAs photodiodes for 3.43 µm radiation thermometry," IEEE Sensors Journal, 15. 5555-5560 (2015). 3. X. Meng, C. H. Tan, S. Dimler, J. P. R. David, and J. S. Ng, "1550 nm InGaAs/InAlAs single photon avalanche diode at room temperature," Optics Express, 22. 22608-22615 (2014). 4. J. S. Ng, X. Meng, J. E. Lees, A. Barnett and C. H. Tan, “Fabrication study of GaAs mesa diodes for X-ray detection,” Journal of Instrumentation, 9. T08005 (2014). 5. R. B. Gomes, C. H. Tan, X. Meng, J. P. R. David and J. S. Ng, “GaAs/Al0.8Ga0.2As avalanche photodiodes for soft X-ray spectroscopy,” Journal of Instrumentation, Journal of Instrumentation, 9. P03014 (2014). 6. X. Meng, S. Xie, X. Zhou, N. Calandri, M. Sanzaro, A. Tosi, C. H. Tan, and J. S. Ng, “InGaAs/InAlAs Single Photon Avalanche Diode with 36 % detection efficiency,” in preparation for submission. Conference publications: 7. X. Meng, S. Xie, X. Zhou, C. H. Tan, and J. S. Ng, “InGaAs/InAlAs single photon avalanche photodiodes for 1550 nm photon counting,” Single Photon Workshop 2015, Geneva, 2015. 8. X. Zhou, X. Meng, J. S. Ng, and C. H. Tan, “Si single photon avalanche photodiode for photon-counting thermometry,” Single Photon Workshop 2015, Geneva, 2015. 9. X. Meng, J. E. Lees, A. M. Barnett, C. H. Tan, and J. S. Ng, “X-ray spectroscopy with GaAs p-i-n Diodes,” 41st International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors (ISCS), Montpellier, 2014. 10. X. Meng, C. H. Tan, R. B. Gomes, I. Sandall, P. J. Ker, and J. S. Ng, “Gamma- ray spectroscopy using InAs photodiodes,” 41st International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors (ISCS), Montpellier, 2014. iv 11. X. Meng, C. H. Tan, and J. S. Ng, “InGaAs/InAlAs Single Photon Avalanche Photodiode for 1550 nm photon counting,” 41st International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors (ISCS), Montpellier, 2014. 12. X. Meng, C. H. Tan, S. J. Dimler, and J. S. Ng, “InGaAs/InAlAs Single Photon Avalanche Diode at 1550 nm,” Semiconductor and Integrated Optoelectronics Conference (SIOE), Cardiff, 2014. 13. X. Meng, J. Xie, J. S. Ng, and C. H. Tan, “Comparison of partially and fully etched GaAs p-i-n Diodes for Soft X-ray Detection,” UK compound semiconductors conference, Sheffield, July 2013. 14. I. Sandall, X. Zhou, X. Meng, A. Krysa, S. Zhang, C. H. Tan, “Development of High Efficiency and uniform InAs APDs for Imaging Applications,” 41st International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors (ISCS), Montpellier, 2014. v Glossary of terms Electron ionisation coefficient abs Absorption coefficient Fitting parameter for BTB tunnelling β Hole ionisation coefficient Electron hold pair creation energy s Permittivity of the semiconductor ρ Density Standard deviation p.e. Probability of occurring photoelectric effect Compton Probability of occurring Compton scattering Rayleigh Probability of occurring Rayleigh scattering total Total probability X-ray photon interaction Quantum efficiency cp Coupling efficiency Mass attenuation coefficient Deflection angle τ Generation carrier lifetime µ·τ(e) Electron mobility-lifetime product µ·τ(h) Hole mobility-lifetime product f The repetition frequency fF Fano factor fmax Maximum amplitude of the Gaussian peak hv Photon energy <i2> Noise current spectral density k Ionisation coefficient ratio kb Boltzmann’s constant n Ideality factor 푛̅ Average number of photon per light pulse vi nd Average number of carriers in a voltage pulse ni Intrinsic carrier concentration pdf Probability density function q Electron charge tdead Dead time trecovery Recovery time ton Pulse width of the AC voltage pulse treset Reset time wabs Width of absorption layer wava Width of avalanche layer wc Charge sheet thickness A Area AC Alternating current APD Avalanche photodiode AQC Active quenching circuit BTB Band-to-band C Capacitance Cbd Temperature coefficient of breakdown voltage Cf Feedback capacitance Ct Total capacitance CMOS Complementary metal oxide semiconductor CQC Capacitive quenching circuit C-V Capacitance-voltage CW Continuous wave DC Direct current DCR Dark count rate DUT Device under test DMM Digital multimeter DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid E X-ray photon energy vii Ec Centroid energy of the energy peak Ebind Binding energy of the electron ER Energy resolution Eth Impact ionisation threshold energy EBT Electron beam testing EHP Electron hole pair F Excess noise factor FET Field effect transistor FWHM Full width at half maximum FWHMEN FWHM due to electronic noise FWHMf Fano-limited FWHM FPA Focal planar array GBP Gain bandwidth product HPGe High purity germanium HV-CMOS High
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