Characterization of HgCdTe MWIR Back-Illuminated Electron-Initiated Avalanche Photodiodes

This article reports new characterization data for large-area (250 μm ×  250 μm) back-illuminated planar n-on-p HgCdTe electron-initiated avalanche photodiodes (e-APDs). These e-APDs were fabricated in p-type HgCdTe films grown by liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) on CdZnTe substrates. We previously reported that these arrays exhibit gain that increases exponentially with reverse bias voltage, with gain-versus-bias curves that are quite uniform from element to element, and with a maximum gain of 648 at −11.7 V at 160 K for a cutoff wavelength of 4.06 μm. Here we report new data on these planar e-APDs. Data from a third LPE film with a longer cutoff wavelength (4.29 μm at 160 K) supports the exponential dependence of gain on cutoff wavelength, for the same bias voltage, that we reported for the first two films (with cutoffs of 3.54 μm and 4.06 μm at 160 K), in agreement with Beck’s empirical model for gain versus voltage and cutoff wavelength in HgCdTe e-APDs. Our lowest gain-normalized current density at 80 K and zero field-of-view is 0.3 μA/cm² at −10.0 V for a cutoff of 4.23 μm at 80 K. We report data for the temperature dependence of gain over 80 K to 200 K. We report, for the first time, the dependence of measured gain on junction area for widely spaced circular diodes with radii of 20 μm to 175 μm. We interpret the variation of measured gain with junction area in terms of an edge-enhanced electric field, and fit the data with a two-gain model having a lower interior gain and a higher edge gain. We report data for the excess noise factor F(M) near unity for gains up to 150 at 196 K. We describe the abrupt breakdown phenomenon seen in most of our devices at high reverse bias.