High sensitivity Ge-on-Si single-photon avalanche diode detectors

The performance of planar geometry Ge-on-Si single-photon avalanche diode detectors of 26µm diameter is presented. Record low dark count rates are observed, remaining less than 100 K counts per second at 6.6% excess bias and 125 K. Single-photon detection efficiencies are found to be up to 29.4%, and are shown to be temperature insensitive. These performance characteristics lead to a significantly reduced noise equivalent power (NEP) of 7.7×10^-17WHz^-12 compared to prior planar devices, and represent a two orders of magnitude reduction in NEP compared to previous Ge-on-Si mesa devices of a comparable diameter. Low jitter values of 134±10ps are demonstrated.