Electrical and computer engineers at the University of Virginia and University of Texas-Austin have developed an avalanche photodiode that achieved record performance and has the potential to transform next generation night-vision imaging and Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) receivers. For lidar, the team’s low-noise, two-micrometer avalanche photodiode enables higher-power operation that is eye-safe.
From an article in Novus Light Technologies
The peer reviewed paper, “Low-noise high-temperature AlInAsSb/GaSb avalanche photodiodes for 2-μm applications,” was published May 18, 2020, in Nature Photonics, a monthly journal of the best research from all areas of light generation, manipulation and detection.
This breakthrough comes from a long-standing collaboration between Joe C. Campbell, Lucien Carr III Professor of electrical and computer engineering at UVA, and Seth R. Bank, Cullen Trust Professor at UT-Austin. Andrew H. Jones, a 2020 Ph.D. graduate advised by Campbell, and Stephen D. March, a Ph.D. student in Bank’s research group, contributed to the research. The team’s work was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Army Research Office.
The team used the novel optical and electrical characteristics of a digital alloy created in Bank’s Laboratory for Advanced Semiconductor Epitaxy (shown above) at the University of Texas, Austin. Bank employed molecular beam epitaxy to grow the alloy, composed of aluminum, indium, arsenic and antimony. The alloy combines long-wavelength sensitivity, ultra-low noise, and the design flexibility that is needed to achieve low dark currents, which is not available with existing low-noise avalanche photodiode materials technologies.
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