Planar InAs avalanche photodiodes with high gain and low noise factor

In photon-starved extended short- and mid-wave infrared optical applications, replacing Mercury Cadmium Telluride (HgCdTe) avalanche photodiodes (APDs) with Indium Arsenide (InAs) APDs offers signiĄcant environmental and cost beneĄts. To demonstrate InAs APDs as a viable alternative, we fabricated planar devices using ion implantation and rigorously characterised multiple devices under high-gain operating conditions. These planar APDs exhibited a very low excess noise factor (F ∼ 1.4) for gains up to 250 at 77K, comparable to HgCdTe devices. We believe this to be the Ąrst experimental report of such low excess noise in planar InAs APDs, marking a signiĄcant step towards establishing them as a realistic alternative.