Room temperature InGaAs/AlGaAsSb Single Photon Avalanche Diode

Near-infrared Single Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPADs) are the dominant, practical single photon detectors for quantum applications and low-level optical sensing. Although some infrared SPADs can operate at room temperature, thermoelectric coolers are still essential, increasing complexity (operation and device packaging) and power consumption. Passively-cooled SPADs could be realized by avalanche materials exhibiting better temperature stability. A promising candidate is the InGaAs/AlGaAsSb SPAD, because the AlGaAsSb multiplier is highly stable with temperature. In this work, we report single photon detection performance of InGaAs/AlGaAsSb SPADs at room temperature and 1550 nm wavelength using multiple devices for each type of measurements. With 0.1 photons per pulse and 15 μm diameter devices, the maximum SPDE was 14% at DCR of 30 Mc.s−1, respectively. The best NEP value is around an order of magnitude higher than InGaAs/InP SPADs, but are comparable to InGaAs/InAlAs SPADs. Within the relevant overbias range and repetition rate up to 1 MHz, the DCR was unaffected by afterpulsing. Timing jitters were as low as 150 ps, matching InGaAs/InP SPADs. The results of this work are much more competitive than the previous report of InGaAs/AlGaAsSb SPAD, which required cooling to 200 K to detect single photons. Further research could help InGaAs/AlGaAsSb SPADs progressing towards passively-cooled single photon detectors for room temperature operation.