Commercially available Geiger mode single-photon avalanche photodiode with a very low afterpulsing probability

TL;DR

This paper reports on a novel broadband Geiger mode avalanche photodiode with exceptionally low afterpulsing, improving photon detection accuracy by reducing false signals caused by afterpulses.

Contribution

Introduction of a new broadband sensitive APD designed for Geiger mode with significantly reduced afterpulsing compared to existing detectors.

Findings

Afterpulsing less than 0.05% at 10V excess voltage

Operates effectively in Geiger mode with usable sensitivity

Maintains low dark count levels

Abstract

Afterpulsing is one of the main technological flaws present in photon counting detectors based on solid-state semiconductor avalanche photodiodes operated in Geiger mode. Level of afterpulsing depends mainly on type of the semiconductor, doping concentrations and temperature and presents an additional source of noise, along with dark counts. Unlike dark counts which appear randomly in time, aterpulses and are time-correlated with the previous detections. For measurements that rely on timing information afterpulsing can create fake signals and diminish the sensitivity. In this work we test a novel broadband sensitive APD that was designed for sub-Geiger avalanche gain operation. We find that this APD, which has a reach-through geometry typical of single-photon detection photodiodes, can also operate in Geiger mode with usable detection sensitivity and acceptable dark counts level while exhibiting uniquely low afterpulsing. The afterpulsing of tested samples was systematically less than 0.05 percent at 10V excess voltage.