A multipixel silicon APD with ultralow dark count rate at liquid nitrogen temperature

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a multipixel silicon avalanche photodiode with an ultralow dark count rate achieved at liquid nitrogen temperature, maintaining high performance metrics suitable for photon detection applications.

Contribution

The study presents a silicon APD with significantly reduced dark counts at 78.5 K, while preserving photodetection efficiency and timing performance comparable to room temperature.

Findings

Dark count rate reduced to less than 0.2 cps at 78.5 K

Photodetection efficiency and timing jitter are similar at 78.5 K and 295 K

Count rate exceeds 50 MHz at 78.5 K and 100 MHz at 295 K

Abstract

The dark count rate of a multipixel photon counter (MPPC) was reduced to less than 0.2 cps by cooling the counter to 78.5 K. Characteristics of the MPPC other than the dark count rate were also detemined at 78.5 K and 295 K. The photodetection efficiency and the timing jitter at 78.5 K were comparable to those at 295 K. The MPPC had a count rate of up to 50 MHz at 78.5 K and above 100 MHz at 295 K. Detailed measurements were performed for detemining the afterpulse probability.