Toward integrated single-photon-counting microarrays

Silicon, shallow junction, Geiger-mode avalanche photodiodes (APDs) can be manufactured with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible processing steps and provide single-photon-counting sensitivity. As we move toward providing integrated detection of increasingly nanoscopic-sized emissions, small-area detectors and arrays that can be easily integrated into marketable systems will be required. Geiger-mode diodes with diameters of 10, 15, and 20 μm are manufactured and the dark counts measured at 10 V above breakdown are 9, 95, and 990, respectively, at room temperature. The simulated and measured optical crosstalk is found to be significantly reduced for detector pixel pitches beyond 300 μm. The activation energy of the dark count with temperature is found to be 0.58 eV, representing an order of magnitude drop in dark count for every 27°C decrease in temperature. The responsivity of the detectors, without antireflection coatings, is found to peak between 550 and 650 nm with a photon detection probability of 43% at 10 V above the breakdown voltage. The low dark counts of the detectors and high photon detection probability highlight the potential these detectors have for fluorescence decay experiments and also in future integrated photonic detection systems.