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Nanoscale avalanche photodiodes for highly sensitive and spatially resolved photon detection

Nature Materials volume 5, pages 352–356 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Integrating nanophotonics with electronics could enhance and/or enable opportunities in areas ranging from communications and computing to novel diagnostics1,2. Light sources and detectors are important elements for integration1, and key progress has been made using semiconducting nanowires3,4,5 and carbon nanotubes to yield electrically driven sources6,7,8,9,10,11,12 and photoconductor detectors13,14,15,16,17. Detection with photoconductors has relatively poor sensitivity at the nanometre scale, and thus large amplification is required to detect low light levels and ultimately single photons with reasonable response time. Here, we report avalanche multiplication of the photocurrent in nanoscale p–n diodes consisting of crossed silicon–cadmium sulphide nanowires. Electrical transport and optical measurements demonstrate that the nanowire avalanche photodiodes (nanoAPDs) have ultrahigh sensitivity with detection limits of less than 100 photons, and subwavelength spatial resolution of at least 250 nm. Crossed nanowire arrays also show that nanoAPDs are reproducible and can be addressed independently without cross-talk. NanoAPDs and arrays could open new opportunities for ultradense integrated systems, sensing and imaging applications.

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Figure 1: Characterization of nanowire APDs.
Figure 2: Temperature-dependent I –V for n-CdS/p-Si crossed-nanowire APDs as a function of p-Si dopant level.
Figure 3: Crossed-nanowire APD responsivity.
Figure 4: Nanowire APD arrays.

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Acknowledgements

We thank W. Riess for discussions. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of H. Babcock and J. Xiang, and we thank X. Zhuang for the use of their optical microscope system.

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Author notes

  1. Oliver Hayden

    Present address: IBM Research GmbH, Zürich Research Laboratory, 8803, Rüschlikon, Switzerland

  2. Ritesh Agarwal

    Present address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104-6272, USA

  3. Oliver Hayden and Ritesh Agarwal: These authors contributed equally to the work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA

    Oliver Hayden, Ritesh Agarwal & Charles M. Lieber

  2. Department of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA

    Charles M. Lieber

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  1. Oliver Hayden
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Correspondence to Charles M. Lieber.

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Hayden, O., Agarwal, R. & Lieber, C. Nanoscale avalanche photodiodes for highly sensitive and spatially resolved photon detection. Nature Mater 5, 352–356 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1635

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