InGaAs/InP Avalanche Photodiode for Single Photon Detection with Zinc Diffusion Process Using Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition

In this paper, we describe a design, simulation, and fabrication of an InGaAs/InP single photon avalanche photodiode (SPAD), which requires a much higher gain, compared to APD’s for conventional optical communications. To achieve a higher gain, an efficient multiplication width control is essential because it significantly affects the overall performance including not only gain but also noise characteristics. Normally, the multiplication layer width is controlled by the Zinc diffusion process. For the reliable and controllable diffusion process, we used metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The controllability of the proposed diffusion process is proved by the diffusion depth measurement of the fabricated devices which show the proportional dependence on the square root of the diffusion time. As a result, we successfully implemented the SPAD that exhibits a high gain enough to detect single photons and a very low dark current level of about 0.1 nA with 0.95 breakdown voltage. The single photon detection efficiency of 15% was measured at the 100 kHz gate pulse rate and the temperature of 230 K.