Cargando…

Synchrotron Radiation Study of Gain, Noise, and Collection Efficiency of GaAs SAM-APDs with Staircase Structure

In hard X-ray applications that require high detection efficiency and short response times, such as synchrotron radiation-based Mössbauer absorption spectroscopy and time-resolved fluorescence or photon beam position monitoring, III–V-compound semiconductors, and dedicated alloys offer some advantag...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Colja, Matija, Cautero, Marco, Menk, Ralf Hendrik, Palestri, Pierpaolo, Gianoncelli, Alessandra, Antonelli, Matias, Biasiol, Giorgio, Dal Zilio, Simone, Steinhartova, Tereza, Nichetti, Camilla, Arfelli, Fulvia, De Angelis, Dario, Driussi, Francesco, Bonanni, Valentina, Pilotto, Alessandro, Gariani, Gianluca, Carrato, Sergio, Cautero, Giuseppe
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9227164/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35746377
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22124598
_version_ 1784734096854876160
author Colja, Matija
Cautero, Marco
Menk, Ralf Hendrik
Palestri, Pierpaolo
Gianoncelli, Alessandra
Antonelli, Matias
Biasiol, Giorgio
Dal Zilio, Simone
Steinhartova, Tereza
Nichetti, Camilla
Arfelli, Fulvia
De Angelis, Dario
Driussi, Francesco
Bonanni, Valentina
Pilotto, Alessandro
Gariani, Gianluca
Carrato, Sergio
Cautero, Giuseppe
author_facet Colja, Matija
Cautero, Marco
Menk, Ralf Hendrik
Palestri, Pierpaolo
Gianoncelli, Alessandra
Antonelli, Matias
Biasiol, Giorgio
Dal Zilio, Simone
Steinhartova, Tereza
Nichetti, Camilla
Arfelli, Fulvia
De Angelis, Dario
Driussi, Francesco
Bonanni, Valentina
Pilotto, Alessandro
Gariani, Gianluca
Carrato, Sergio
Cautero, Giuseppe
author_sort Colja, Matija
collection PubMed
description In hard X-ray applications that require high detection efficiency and short response times, such as synchrotron radiation-based Mössbauer absorption spectroscopy and time-resolved fluorescence or photon beam position monitoring, III–V-compound semiconductors, and dedicated alloys offer some advantages over the Si-based technologies traditionally used in solid-state photodetectors. Amongst them, gallium arsenide (GaAs) is one of the most valuable materials thanks to its unique characteristics. At the same time, implementing charge-multiplication mechanisms within the sensor may become of critical importance in cases where the photogenerated signal needs an intrinsic amplification before being acquired by the front-end electronics, such as in the case of a very weak photon flux or when single-photon detection is required. Some GaAs-based avalanche photodiodes (APDs) were grown by a molecular beam epitaxy to fulfill these needs; by means of band gap engineering, we realised devices with separate absorption and multiplication region(s) (SAM), the latter featuring a so-called staircase structure to reduce the multiplication noise. This work reports on the experimental characterisations of gain, noise, and charge collection efficiencies of three series of GaAs APDs featuring different thicknesses of the absorption regions. These devices have been developed to investigate the role of such thicknesses and the presence of traps or defects at the metal–semiconductor interfaces responsible for charge loss, in order to lay the groundwork for the future development of very thick GaAs devices (thicker than 100 [Formula: see text] m) for hard X-rays. Several measurements were carried out on such devices with both lasers and synchrotron light sources, inducing photon absorption with X-ray microbeams at variable and controlled depths. In this way, we verified both the role of the thickness of the absorption region in the collection efficiency and the possibility of using the APDs without reaching the punch-through voltage, thus preventing the noise induced by charge multiplication in the absorption region. These devices, with thicknesses suitable for soft X-ray detection, have also shown good characteristics in terms of internal amplification and reduction of multiplication noise, in line with numerical simulations.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9227164
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-92271642022-06-25 Synchrotron Radiation Study of Gain, Noise, and Collection Efficiency of GaAs SAM-APDs with Staircase Structure Colja, Matija Cautero, Marco Menk, Ralf Hendrik Palestri, Pierpaolo Gianoncelli, Alessandra Antonelli, Matias Biasiol, Giorgio Dal Zilio, Simone Steinhartova, Tereza Nichetti, Camilla Arfelli, Fulvia De Angelis, Dario Driussi, Francesco Bonanni, Valentina Pilotto, Alessandro Gariani, Gianluca Carrato, Sergio Cautero, Giuseppe Sensors (Basel) Article In hard X-ray applications that require high detection efficiency and short response times, such as synchrotron radiation-based Mössbauer absorption spectroscopy and time-resolved fluorescence or photon beam position monitoring, III–V-compound semiconductors, and dedicated alloys offer some advantages over the Si-based technologies traditionally used in solid-state photodetectors. Amongst them, gallium arsenide (GaAs) is one of the most valuable materials thanks to its unique characteristics. At the same time, implementing charge-multiplication mechanisms within the sensor may become of critical importance in cases where the photogenerated signal needs an intrinsic amplification before being acquired by the front-end electronics, such as in the case of a very weak photon flux or when single-photon detection is required. Some GaAs-based avalanche photodiodes (APDs) were grown by a molecular beam epitaxy to fulfill these needs; by means of band gap engineering, we realised devices with separate absorption and multiplication region(s) (SAM), the latter featuring a so-called staircase structure to reduce the multiplication noise. This work reports on the experimental characterisations of gain, noise, and charge collection efficiencies of three series of GaAs APDs featuring different thicknesses of the absorption regions. These devices have been developed to investigate the role of such thicknesses and the presence of traps or defects at the metal–semiconductor interfaces responsible for charge loss, in order to lay the groundwork for the future development of very thick GaAs devices (thicker than 100 [Formula: see text] m) for hard X-rays. Several measurements were carried out on such devices with both lasers and synchrotron light sources, inducing photon absorption with X-ray microbeams at variable and controlled depths. In this way, we verified both the role of the thickness of the absorption region in the collection efficiency and the possibility of using the APDs without reaching the punch-through voltage, thus preventing the noise induced by charge multiplication in the absorption region. These devices, with thicknesses suitable for soft X-ray detection, have also shown good characteristics in terms of internal amplification and reduction of multiplication noise, in line with numerical simulations. MDPI 2022-06-17 /pmc/articles/PMC9227164/ /pubmed/35746377 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22124598 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Colja, Matija
Cautero, Marco
Menk, Ralf Hendrik
Palestri, Pierpaolo
Gianoncelli, Alessandra
Antonelli, Matias
Biasiol, Giorgio
Dal Zilio, Simone
Steinhartova, Tereza
Nichetti, Camilla
Arfelli, Fulvia
De Angelis, Dario
Driussi, Francesco
Bonanni, Valentina
Pilotto, Alessandro
Gariani, Gianluca
Carrato, Sergio
Cautero, Giuseppe
Synchrotron Radiation Study of Gain, Noise, and Collection Efficiency of GaAs SAM-APDs with Staircase Structure
title Synchrotron Radiation Study of Gain, Noise, and Collection Efficiency of GaAs SAM-APDs with Staircase Structure
title_full Synchrotron Radiation Study of Gain, Noise, and Collection Efficiency of GaAs SAM-APDs with Staircase Structure
title_fullStr Synchrotron Radiation Study of Gain, Noise, and Collection Efficiency of GaAs SAM-APDs with Staircase Structure
title_full_unstemmed Synchrotron Radiation Study of Gain, Noise, and Collection Efficiency of GaAs SAM-APDs with Staircase Structure
title_short Synchrotron Radiation Study of Gain, Noise, and Collection Efficiency of GaAs SAM-APDs with Staircase Structure
title_sort synchrotron radiation study of gain, noise, and collection efficiency of gaas sam-apds with staircase structure
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9227164/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35746377
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s22124598
work_keys_str_mv AT coljamatija synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT cauteromarco synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT menkralfhendrik synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT palestripierpaolo synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT gianoncellialessandra synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT antonellimatias synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT biasiolgiorgio synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT dalziliosimone synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT steinhartovatereza synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT nichetticamilla synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT arfellifulvia synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT deangelisdario synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT driussifrancesco synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT bonannivalentina synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT pilottoalessandro synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT garianigianluca synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT carratosergio synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure
AT cauterogiuseppe synchrotronradiationstudyofgainnoiseandcollectionefficiencyofgaassamapdswithstaircasestructure