High gain, low noise 1550 nm GaAsSb/AlGaAsSb avalanche photodiodes

Abstract

High sensitivity avalanche photodiodes (APDs) operating at eye-safe infrared wavelengths (1400–1650 nm) are essential components in many communications and sensing systems. We report the demonstration of a room temperature, ultrahigh gain ( M = 278 , λ = 1550 n m , V = 69.5 V , T = 296 K ) linear mode APD on an InP substrate using a G a A s 0.5 S b 0.5 / A l 0.85 G a 0.15 A s 0.56 S b 0.44 separate absorption, charge, and multiplication (SACM) heterostructure. This represents ∼ 10 × gain improvement ( M = 278 ) over commercial, state-of-the-art InGaAs/InP-based APDs ( M ∼ 30 ) operating at 1550 nm. The excess noise factor is extremely low ( F < 3 ) at M = 70 , which is even lower than Si APDs. This design gives a quantum efficiency of 5935.3% at maximum gain. This SACM APD also shows an extremely low temperature breakdown sensitivity ( C b d ) of ∼ 11.83 m V / K , which is ∼ 10 × lower than equivalent InGaAs/InP commercial APDs. These major improvements in APD performance are likely to lead to their wide adoption in many photon-starved applications.